It isn’t really that much of a surprise that the Ohio State vs Michigan game was a massive hit for Fox this year. I mean, you had two top-five teams doing battle in what had huge College Football Playoff and Big Ten Championship implications.
What is somewhat surprising, is that the game metered the highest ratings of any regular-season college football game on Fox … ever. Yes, like since these things have been tracked. In fact, according to the release from Fox PR, “The Game” was the most-watched college football regular-season game since 2019 on any network. That year, folks sat down with their sweet tea and grits and took in Alabama vs. LSU.
The contest between the old rivals drew 15,893,000 viewers on Saturday, which is considerable considering no other game aside from the Alabama vs. Auburn game got over 10,000,000 views this season.
With 15,893,000 viewers on FOX, Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan matchup ranks as @CFBonFOX’s most watched college football game ever 🥇
Starting at 11:00 AM ET, #BigNoonKickoff scored 3,392,000 viewers, it’s best regular season performance ever 🎉 pic.twitter.com/f5fOtaM4Hv
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) December 1, 2021
OSU vs. Michigan always draws a large audience and often leads when it comes to viewership for a regular-season game, but the numbers were even 27% higher than the 2019 game.
We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that there’s going to be a very large audience take this one in again during the year of our Lord 2022. Ohio State will be looking to correct the variance in the rivalry that occurred this season and restore order in the universe. People will tune in for that.
Mark it down.
Oh, and also: Ohio State vs. Michigan > Alabama vs. Auburn. Don’t let them tell you any different.
