Not a week goes by, it seems, without news of stellar TV ratings for college football game broadcasts and studio shows alike. ESPN typically takes the lead, touting its SEC coverage. But Fox and its data gurus haven’t hesitated to highlight year-over-year viewership increases and record-breaking audiences for the sport across all networks.
Notably, the eyeballs aren’t locked on Saturdays exclusively.
“Friday night CFB isn’t going anywhere and if anything it’ll only get bigger,” Fox head of insights and analytics Michael Mulvihill wrote recently on the social media platform X.
It seems Friday evening is the new Saturday night. And the development carries fascinating implications for both team schedules and conference media rights agreements in coming years.
According to Mulvihill, ratings for the Friday broadcasts on Fox have increased 15 percent year-over-year and, in fact, are higher than ratings for the Saturday late-afternoon and evening games. (In other words: every Fox window except ‘Big Noon.’)
What’s more, he noted, the Friday broadcasts on ESPN are out-drawing the network’s Saturday games.
Granted, the best SEC matchups are on ABC, often in triple-header fashion. But the mere thought of a Friday broadcast outdrawing any Saturday counterpart on Fox and ESPN is a jolt — and worthy of a deep dive.
The Hotline examined TV ratings for Friday games that have aired on Fox and ESPN (and ESPN2) this season using data from the SportsMediaWatch.com database.
We then removed any matchup in which both teams were from the Group of Five. The 13 games through Oct. 17 that met our criteria averaged 2.5 million viewers, with Florida State-Virginia leading the way (4.4 million).
Filter for only Power Four vs. Power Four and the average audience ticks up to 2.7 million.
That does, in fact, compare favorably to Fox’s broadcasts in the network’s Saturday windows (outside of Big Noon):
— The Arizona State-Texas Tech duel in the late-afternoon window (Eastern Time) on Oct. 18 drew 2.6 million viewers.
— The Utah-BYU rivalry game later that night generated 2 million.
— Colorado-TCU, slotted into the evening window on Oct. 4, attracted 2.1 million viewers.
The Friday games on both networks also compare favorably to the top Saturday games on ESPN:
— Kentucky-Texas in the evening window on Oct. 18 drew 2.6 million viewers.
— Florida-Texas A&M earlier in the month had the same total.
— What about the #AfterDark timeslot? ESPN’s recent broadcast of Utah-Arizona State at 10:45 p.m. (Eastern) registered 1.3 million viewers — half the Friday prime time audience.
Were that the extent of the data, and the conclusion of this column, the increasing popularity of Friday night broadcasts would be merely a notable nugget pinned to the sweeping sports media canvas.
But there’s more content coming, it appears.
Mulvihill’s comment that Friday night college football “isn’t going anywhere and if anything it’ll only get bigger” stands as the closest we’ve seen to an official acknowledgment of plans to expand the Friday night inventory in future years. The concept makes too much sense to ignore, however.
“I think you’ll see more of that,” said media analyst Patrick Crakes, head of Crakes Media and a former Fox Sports senior vice president for programming and content strategy. “Because what are you replacing?”
Nothing that will be missed.
Scripted content in prime-time windows is losing value for the networks at the same rate their desire for live sports is growing. Why wouldn’t Fox and ESPN look to double their Friday night success in future years by scheduling — you guessed it — doubleheaders.
Rip a page from the Saturday programming playbook and create an #AfterDark matchup on Friday (10:30 p.m. Eastern) that follows the primetime broadcast. The ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten all have campuses in the Pacific Time Zone, after all.
The move could help Fox (or NBC or CBS) with their bottom lines by eliminating the need to develop and produce scripted content.
Essentially, doubleheaders would carve out seven hours for live sports and “put a giant X through the whole night” for network executives, an industry source said.
And thanks to advances in Nielsen’s tracking technology that allow more accurate out-of-home audience measurements, doubleheaders on Friday — a big out-of-home night — would probably generate stellar ratings. And Crakes believes advertisers would support the push.
The endgame, it seems, is easy to envision.
The ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten are locked into media rights deals for years to come. Whether there’s enough wiggle room within the existing language to create Friday doubleheaders during this contract cycle, we cannot say.
(The SEC does not play on Fridays, if you’re wondering.)
But if the Friday viewership numbers remain on their current trajectory — and if scripted entertainment continues to migrate to streaming platforms — the next round of media rights deals could very well include both more prime-time broadcasts games and a new window entirely.
New windows would mean more money for the power conferences.
They also would require, ahem, more teams.
*** Previously published Hotline articles on sports media:
— Our plan to save the USC-Notre Dame series— How the Week 5 games highlight CBS’ big whiff with the SEC— Explaining the 11 p.m. (ET) kickoff time for USC-Michigan State— Dave Portnoy and Ohio State is a dangerous game for Fox— The Big 12’s social media game is clever, proactive and undaunted— Pac-12 partners with The CW on media rights for 2026+— Where (and when) to find Big 12 football games this season— Low ratings, NFL conflicts make it clear: CFP calendar needs to change— Thanksgiving Eve is an open broadcast window the Big 12, Pac-12 should exploit— Fox’s Friday night strategy and the future of sports on TV— Explaining the Big Ten’s TV selection process
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