Iowa-Ohio State gives CBS first CFB regular-season ratings weekend win since 2024

NOTE: A previous version of this story said it was the first time since 2023 that CBS topped the weekend ratings. The story has been corrected below.

Iowa and Ohio State averaged just shy of six million viewers on CBS, which might not be among the biggest college football game audiences this season, but it was enough to give the network its first weekend ratings win in almost two years.

Per CBS, the highly anticipated Big Ten matchup averaged 5.966 million viewers, peaking at about seven million.

That beat a trio of games on ABC that day, including Alabama vs. Mississippi State (5.1 million), Miami vs. Clemson (4.6 million), and Florida vs. Missouri (4.4 million).

Other top ratings figures from this past weekend include Fox’s Big Noon matchup between Michigan and Minnesota (4.1 million), Fox’s Penn State vs. Northwestern broadcast (3.4 million), Auburn vs. Tennessee on ESPN (3.02 million), Notre Dame and UNC on ESPN (2.98 million), and NBC’s presentation of Washington vs. USC (2.6 million).

CBS Sports delivers most-watched game of the week on any Network with presentation of Ohio State-Iowa on Saturday: https://t.co/6UkHIMdBrb

— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) October 6, 2026

It marks the first time since Week 4 of the 2024 season that CBS has had a game at the top of the college football weekend, when 6.32 million viewers watched No. 18 Michigan defeat No. 11 USC. That edged out ABC’s presentation of Tennessee-Oklahoma, which garnered 6.3 million.

Before that, CBS last took the top spot on November 4, 2023, when No. 8 Alabama defeated No. 13 LSU in primetime, drawing 8.82 million viewers for what became the sixth-most-watched game of the 2023 college football regular season across all networks.

It might not amount to too much by the time Ohio State-Michigan and several late-season SEC showdowns take the top TV number spots, but it’s still a noteworthy notch for CBS, which, along with Fox, has been losing the battle against ESPN and ABC ever since the SEC jumped ship from CBS to them.

Ironically, CBS may owe the extra boost to ESPN. The Worldwide Leader sent College GameDay to Iowa City this weekend instead of one of its games or ABC. GameDay posted big numbers of its own, drawing 2.9 million viewers (and a final hour of 3.7 million), many of whom were likely influenced to watch the game later.

For years, the SEC on CBS was the juggernaut of college football ratings, but when the league left for ESPN and CBS signed the Big Ten instead, that reign ended. It’s no wonder the Tiffany Network hasn’t topped the charts in so long.

CBS probably shouldn’t get too cozy up there. ABC has The Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma at 3:30 p.m., plus No. 2 Georgia vs. No. 6 Alabama on Saturday night in primetime. CBS has a perfectly solid matchup between No. 13 Oregon and UCLA, but that’s simply no match from an audience perspective.

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