Ohio State’s loss to Michigan on Saturday was a big ratings win for Fox.
The first edition of The Game in two years drew 15,893,000 television viewers, making it the most-watched college game ever on Fox and the most-watched regular season game on any network since LSU’s 46-41 win over Alabama on Nov. 9, 2019.
Per Fox, this year’s game drew 27% more viewers than the 2019 Ohio State-Michigan game, which the Buckeyes won 56-27.
With 15,893,000 viewers on FOX, Saturdays Ohio State-Michigan matchup ranks as @CFBonFOXs most watched college football game ever
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) December 1, 2021
Starting at 11:00 AM ET, #BigNoonKickoff scored 3,392,000 viewers, its best regular season performance ever pic.twitter.com/f5fOtaM4Hv
The Game drew over 5 million viewers more than any other college football game this season. The Alabama-Auburn game drew 10.369 million viewers on Saturday, but before this past weekend, no other college football game this season had drawn 10 million viewers, according to Awful Announcing.
For the regular season as a whole, Ohio State was the only college football team to draw an average of more than 5 million TV viewers per game; the only other schools above 4 million were Michigan and Alabama.
Which programs played in front of the largest TV audiences in 2021?
— Double BB (@BBsBigHouse1) December 1, 2021
Heres a look at the Top 20.
The @B1Gfootball has
Top 2
3 of Top 4
Half of Top 8
FOX better hold onto that deal!! pic.twitter.com/6169PlETgV
Safe to say there will be no shortage of people The Game once again on Nov. 26, 2022, when the series will return to Ohio Stadium for the first time since 2018 and the Buckeyes will be looking to avenge this year’s loss and get back on the winning side of the rivalry.
