(Photo courtesy Joshua McCoy/UM Athletics)
Ole Miss’ historic win over Alabama last Saturday was not only popular with members of Rebel Nation, it was among the most-watched college football games of the year.
The Rebels’ thrilling 43-37 victory over the Tide at Bryant-Denny Stadium was the highest-rated game of the week across all television networks, earning a 4.6 overnight rating. The rating is up 254 percent to the 2014 comparable television window and is the third-highest overnight rating of the 2015 season across ESPN.
The instant classic was WatchESPN’s most-streamed college football game of the week and the product’s second-most streamed regular season college football game ever. It achieved an average minute audience of 128,000 users, 615,000 unique viewers and 35,700,000 live minutes viewed. Additionally, the stream was up 485 percent in average minute audience, 328 percent in unique viewers and 666 percent in live minutes viewed compared to last season’s similar window (USC at Boston College).
It’s not the first time ESPN has benefitted from a big-time showdown between Ole Miss and ‘Bama. College GameDay appeared in The Grove for last year matchup, and it was the most-watched episode of the 2014 season for the popular pre-game show.
Ole Miss is the talk of college football this week. Numerous outlets have pegged Hugh Freeze’s squad as a playoff frontrunner, and the Rebels were the headline story on nearly every sports website over the weekend.
The Rebels look to improve to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in SEC play when Vanderbilt visits Vaught-Hemingway Stadium this Saturday. Kickoff is 6 p.m. CT, televised by ESPNU.
Written by Joey Jones
Story courtesy UM Athletics
