Sunday’s matchup between Alabama and Auburn drew 435,000 viewers on ESPN, according to television ratings released by ShowBuzzDaily.com.
The game is the 3rd-most-watched softball telecast of the season, trailing only the March 1st matchup of Texas vs. Oklahoma (439,000) and February’s Alabama vs. Florida State game from Clearwater; the most-watched telecast of the season to this point, the matchup of the Crimson Tide and the Seminoles drew 549,000 viewers.
In addition to the general viewership number, the broadcast of Auburn’s win over their archrivals on Sunday also checked in on a higher plane than the Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee college baseball game that aired on ESPN2 simultaneously. That SEC baseball matchup brought in just 162,000 viewers.
Auburn and Alabama’s faceoff also had more viewers than the XFL and USFL games aired on ESPN, ESPN2, and Fs1 over the weekend.
Softball performed well on TV all weekend, with Saturday’s LSU vs. Missisippi State game checking in with 296,000 viewers, easily beating college baseball games between LSU and Ole Miss (208k) and Tennesssee vs. Vanderbilt (151k) on the same day.
Elsewhere, Arkansas’ win over Kentucky on Saturday drew 192,000 viewers and UCLA’s victory over Arizona State brought in 101,000 viewers. Thursday night’s matchup between Florida State and Virginia Tech – what was supposed to be the first game of a TV doubleheader before rain in Austin altered those plans – drew a watching crowd of some 214,000.
