LSU v. South Carolina on ESPN is Saturday's Most-Viewed College Football Game

ESPN's Saturday night college football matchup October 13 - a 23-21 LSU victory over South Carolina - was the week's most-viewed college football game across any network. The SEC matchup averaged a 3.7 US rating (4.3 coverage rating), 5,978,000 viewers and 4,227,000 households. It is also ESPN's most-viewed and highest-rated regular-season college football game since September 15, 2011 (a 19-6 LSU win over Mississippi State averaged 6,250,000 viewers and a 4.0 US rating). The top five metered markets for the telecast: Birmingham (24.6 rating), New Orleans (22.9), Greenville (21.2), Atlanta (10.6) and Charlotte (10.3).

ABC also posted a strong audience for its Saturday afternoon regional broadcast (Michigan 45-0 over Illinois, Texas Tech 49-14 over West Virginia and Oregon State 42-24 over BYU), averaging 4,551,000 viewers and a 3.1 rating. ESPN's "reverse mirror" of the Illinois at Michigan and West Virginia at Texas Tech games averaged an additional 990,000 viewers.

In addition, ESPNU averaged 1,120,000 viewers for its telecast of Florida beating Vanderbilt 31-17, making it the network's fourth most-viewed regular-season college football game ever. ESPNU also posted its most-viewed college football game this season, averaging 1,491,000 viewers for the season opening matchup, a 35-21 Tennessee win over NC State.

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