Bedlam Marks Highest Peak Rating for College Football’s Week 11

The Cowboys entered the city of Norman as three-TD underdogs, but a failed 2-point conversion was all that kept them from probably coming out on top. What happened in between can only be described as absolute Bedlam. It was one “hell of a college football game”, and the TV ratings reflected as much.

According to an ESPN press release, Saturday night’s Bedlam game, which aired on ABC, enjoyed the highest peak audience in Week 11 on any network.

Oklahoma State at Oklahoma’s annual Bedlam matchup (3:30 p.m.) resulted in ABC increasing its own audience by 36% from the same game window last year (Iowa at Wisconsin) and delivered a 76% increase from last year’s Bedlam game which aired on a competitor’s network.

The down-to-the-wire Sooners’ victory finished with a 3.0 overnight and earned the sport’s highest peak audience of Week 11 on any network. The rating jumped to a 5.1 overnight when the Cowboys’ scored a touchdown with one minute to go in the fourth quarter, but failed to convert a two point conversion which would have given them the lead (7:15 – 7:30 p.m. ET). [ESPN MediaZone]

The report also stated that both the local Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets also recorded multi-year highs — OKC with a 34.7 rating, its highest on any ESPN network since 2013, and Tulsa with a 33.3 local rating, its highest for the worldwide leader since 2015.

ABC’s Saturday Night Football game involving No. 2 Clemson at No. 17 Boston College also logged the highest primetime TV rating of the week.