Michigan Averaged The Most TV Viewers, Highest Ratings In Regular Season
Michigan ended the regular season averaging the most TV viewers per game in the country.
The Wolverines also had the highest average rating per game in the country in games on national television in the regular season.
Michigan topped Alabama and Ohio State in both categories. U-M averaged 5.726 million viewers per game in its nine nationally broadcasted games in the 2017 season. Alabama averaged 5.709 million per game in 11 national games and Ohio State averaged 5.256 million per game in its 10 nationally televised contests.
Alabama had the most total viewers in the country, with 62.804 million — largely due to having more games shown on national TV. Ohio State had 52.559 million total viewers in its 10 games, compared to Michigan's 51.53 million in nine games.
Michigan's highest rated game of the season was against Ohio State. That meeting earned a 6.1 overnight rating and had 10.507 million viewers. It was the fifth-highest rated game of the season overall.
Four of Michigan's nine nationally televised games were the highest rated and most watched games of the week: Week six against Michigan State, week seven against Indiana, week eight against Penn State and week 12 against Wisconsin.
Week one against Florida and week 13 against Ohio State both were the No. 2 games of those weeks, behind Alabama-Florida State and Alabama-Auburn, respectively.
The Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn was the most watched regular season game with 13.66 million viewers, but it was Georgia-Auburn that was the highest rated, with an 8.0 overnight rating on CBS.
All nine of Michigan's national games finished in the top six of that week, and eight of them were in the top four (six were in the top two).
The Wolverines showed they were a draw in any time slot. Two of the four times it was the highest rated game of the week, Michigan was playing at night, while the third (Indiana) was a noon start and the fourth (Wisconsin) began at 3:30. Florida and Purdue were both mid-afternoon kickoffs, and Ohio State was at noon.
Five of the nine games were televised on ABC, including three of the four games that were No. 1 of the week. The other four, including the team's highest rated and most watched game (Ohio State), were on FOX.
Big Ten Network broadcasts are not considered nationally televised games. U-M played on BTN three times, against Air Force, Rutgers and Maryland.
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