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Penn State-Ohio State Lands Highest-Rated TV Broadcast Of 2018 Season

Update Tuesday, October 2: ESPN announced Saturday night’s broadcast of Penn State’s clash with Ohio State averaged 9.2 million viewers throughout the game and peaked at more than 12.5 million viewers, easily becoming the most watched college football game of the season.

Penn State’s first home loss since 2015 is now one of the five most watched games on the ESPN family of networks in the past decade.

The game is now ESPN’s most-watched broadcast since Alabama and Florida State’s season-opening top three clash in 2017, which brought in more than 12.5 million viewers and hit a peak of more than 14 million.

Original Story: Then-No. 9 Penn State’s 27-26 defeat at the hands of then-No. 4 Ohio State is now the highest-rated game of the college football season after its national broadcast earned a 6.1 overnight rating.

The game’s peak rating of 8.2 came in the fourth quarter as the Buckeyes came back from a two-possession deficit to escape Happy Valley with a victory. It also ranks among the five highest-rated Saturday games in September since 2004, and was ESPN’s best regular season game since the beginning of the 2017 season.

ABC’s broadcast of the White Out clash also dominated competing broadcasts, beating them by at least 135 percent. No. 8 Notre Dame’s 38-17 victory over seventh-ranked Stanford was broadcast on NBC during Penn State’s game, and the ranked matchup between No. 20 BYU and No. 11 Washington kicked off at 8:30 p.m. on FOX.

The White Out clash set Beaver Stadium’s new attendance record on top of being the most watched game on TV. Saturday’s crowd of 110,889 broke the record set in last year’s White Out game against Michigan.

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About the Author

Mikey Mandarino

In the most upsetting turn of events, Mikey graduated from Penn State with a digital & print journalism degree in the spring of 2020. He covered Penn State football and served as an editor for Onward State from 2018 until his graduation. Mikey is from Bedminster, New Jersey, so naturally, he spends lots of time yelling about all the best things his home state has to offer. Mikey also loves to play golf, but he sucks at it because golf is really hard. If you, for some reason, feel compelled to see what Mikey has to say on the internet, follow him on Twitter @Mikey_Mandarino. You can also get in touch with Mikey via his big-boy email address: [email protected]

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