This weekend’s lineup of live TV sports events begins on the football field as the second half of the college football season begins with a huge Big Ten Conference matchup between undefeated rivals.

Fox on Saturday will air the game between third-ranked Ohio State and No. 7 Penn State in a matchup of top ten-ranked teams. Other ranked teams in action include second-ranked Michigan against rival Michigan State on NBC, fourth-ranked Florida State hosting Duke on ABC, and fifth-ranked Washington taking on Arizona State on FS1. The schedule also includes No. 6 Oklahoma-UCF (ABC), No. 8 Texas-Houston (Fox), No. 9 Oregon-Washington State (ABC), and No. 10 North Carolina-Virginia (CW).

Sunday’s pro football slate includes afternoon regional matchups on Fox and CBS, as well as NBC’s Sunday Night Football game between the Miami Dolphins and the Philadelphia Eagles.

In the octagon, ESPN will distribute the UFC 294 pay-per-view event featuring a main event rematch between lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. 

Major League Baseball’s march to the World Series continues on Saturday with Game 5 of the Philadelphia Phillies-Arizona Cardinals National League Championship Series on TBS and on Sunday with Game 6 of the Texas Rangers-Houston Astros American League Championship series on FS1.

On the racetrack, the NASCAR playoffs continue on Saturday with the Xfinity Series Contender Boats 300 race on NBC and USA Network, and on Sunday with the NASCAR Cup 4Ever 400 race also on NBC.

On the links, the CW will air weekend coverage of the LIV Royal Greens tournament, while on the soccer field USA, NBC and Peacock will feature live coverage of Premier League games throughout the weekend. 

Warner Bros. Discovery Sports will offer an alternative live sports feed to its National League Championship Series postseason baseball coverage targeted to Hispanic viewers. 

The Postseason ALTcast: Peloteros feed debuts October 16 and will run on truTV and Max alongside the traditional game telecast airing on TBS and Max. The English-language offering, hosted by Alanna Rizzo, will feature a diverse panel of commentators representing former Hispanic/Latino Major League Baseball players, including Pedro Martinez, Albert Pujols, Yonder Alonso and Nestor Cortes. 

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The panel will break down the action from each NLCS game as it's happening while providing their unique perspectives and insights on Hispanic culture in baseball, said WBD Sports.

The Postseason ALTCast: Peloteros is the first of what could be several alternative feed offerings from Warner Bros. Discovery Sports streaming on Max’s new sports tier, according to WBD Sports chief content officer Craig Barry.

"Now that we have Max as an additional platform, it creates a lot more real estate and a lot more opportunity to create potential alternative feeds,” he said. “When you talk about alternative feeds, you’re trying to serve a fan’s need, and although we’re brainstorming and exploring at this point, we’re exploring all these things to see if we can build on an opportunity for a larger degree of fan engagement.” 

Baseball fans seeking coverage of the NLCS in Spanish can find it on MLB Network, with Fernando Álvarez handling play by play and Carlos Peña on color commentary. The NLCS will start October 20 with the Arizona Diamondbacks taking on the Philadelphia Phillies.  

NBC’s October 8 Sunday Night Football telecast was the most-watched sports event for the second week in a row, while Major League Baseball playoff telecasts topped non-football viewership.

NBC’s telecast of the San Francisco 49ers' blowout win over the Dallas Cowboys  averaged 24.28 million viewers for the week of October 2-8, according to Nielsen numbers published by SportsMedia Watch. Overall, NFL games secured the top five most-watched sports events for the week. 

ABC’s October 7 Oklahoma Sooners-Texas Longhorns telecast drew 7.30 million viewers to finish as the top-rated college football game. 

Baseball postseason game telecasts secured the top four slots for non-football audiences, led by TBS’s October 7 telecast of the Philadelphia Phillies-Atlanta Braves National League Divisional Series opening game. 

Cable networks airing live sports programming scored big ratings returns last week, led by baseball playoffs-infused TBS.

TBS, bolstered by its coverage of Major League Baseball’s American League Championship Series between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees, averaged 2.9 million viewers during the week of October 17 to October 23 to top all cable networks, according to Nielsen. ESPN, which continued to draw big audiences to Monday Night Football, finished second for the week with 2.7 million viewers.

FS1, which aired the National League Championship Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres, pulled into fourth place in primetime with 1.6 million viewers, and in sixth place on the total day chart with 484,000 viewers.

Fox News finished third in primetime for the week with 2.3 million viewers, while MSNBC rounded out the top five most watched networks with 1.1 million viewers.

TNT was sixth with 1 million viewers, followed by Hallmark Channel (982,000 viewers), HGTV (833,000), TLC (741,000) and INSP (635,000).

Fox News Channel remained atop the total-day charts for the 42nd week, fighting off challengers TBS (892,000 viewers), ESPN (888,000), MSNBC (719,000) and Hallmark Channel (549,000), Nielsen reported. ■  

This weekend’s sports action on TV starts on the baseball field as the Atlanta Braves look to close out the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday night in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on TBS. The Dodgers, down three games to two in the best of seven series to the Braves, need to win Saturday night to force a Game 7 winner-take-all matchup on Sunday, which would also air live on TBS.  

The NBA kicks off the first weekend of its 2021-22 season with NBATV offering doubleheader coverage on Saturday night and coverage of the Boston Celtics-Houston Rockets game on Sunday night. 

The NFL kicks off its seventh weekend of action with regional game coverage on Fox and CBS, as well as an NBC Sunday Night Football game between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers.

On the auto racing front, NBC on Saturday will televise the NASCAR Xfinity Kansas Lottery 300 race, while NBCSN on Sunday offers coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 race. Also on Sunday, ESPN will televise the Formula One United States Grand Prix auto race. 

College football will kick off its eighth week of action with eight of the top 10-ranked schools appearing on national television. No. 2-ranked Cincinnati will travel to play Navy on ESPN2, while No. 3 Oklahoma heads to Kansas to face the Jayhawks on ESPN. No. 4 Alabama will take on Tennessee on ESPN while No. 5 Ohio State meets Indiana on ABC. The rest of the schedule includes No. 6 Michigan-Northwestern (Fox), No. 7 Penn State-Illinois (ABC), No. 8 Oklahoma State-Iowa State (Fox), and No. 10 Oregon-UCLA (ABC).

The TV sports lineup for the third weekend in October starts on the baseball diamond with Major League Baseball's American League and National League Championship Series. 

On Saturday, Fox will televise Game two of the Boston Red Sox-Houston Astros ALCS, after the Astros won the first game of the series Friday night. TBS on Saturday night will air Game one of the Los Angeles Dodgers-Atlanta Braves NLCS series as well as Game two on Sunday night.

The NHL heads into its first weekend of regular season action with the NHL Network's Saturday doubleheader coverage and Sunday game telecast between Dallas and Ottawa.

NBC on Saturday will head to the race track to air live coverage of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Andy’s Frozen Custard 335 Race from Texas as well as on Sunday for live coverage of the NASCAR Cup Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 race.

USA Network and NBC will offer Premier League soccer coverage on Saturday, while NBCSN offers live game coverage on Saturday and Sunday. ESPN on Sunday will feature a Major League Soccer matchup between NYCFC and the NY Red Bulls. 

Week seven of the college football season features six of the top 10-ranked teams, including the new top-ranked team in Georgia, who travels to play No. 11 Kentucky in a game airing on CBS. Other games include No. 2 Iowa-Purdue (ABC), No. 3 Cincinnati-UCF (ABC), No. 4 Oklahoma-TCU (ABC), No. 5 Alabama-Mississippi State (ESPN), and No. 10 Michigan State-Indiana (FS1).

In the NFL, week six features a Sunday morning, London-based game between the Miami Dolphins and the winless Jacksonville Jaguars on CBS, followed by regional afternoon action on CBS and Fox. NBC’s Sunday Night Football game features the Seattle Seahawks against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The NFL Thursday said it will now push the Pittsburgh Steelers-Tennessee Titans game to later in the season after more Titans players and staff tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. 

In a statement, the league said the week four game initially slated for this Sunday will be "rescheduled to later in the season" after a Titans player and personnel member tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the number to 11 team members, according to CBS.com. The Titans facility, which was closed earlier this week, will remain closed and the team will continue to have no in-person activities until further notice, said the statement.

The announcement comes a day after the league said it had hoped to play the game either Monday or Tuesday night. 

As the NFL looks to manage COVID-19 outbreaks, Major League Baseball is planning to allow limited fan attendance to its National League Championship Series and World Series games to be held in Texas, according to the New York Times. 

The games will be held in Arlington at the Texas Rangers' new retractable-roof stadium -- the first time the World Series will be held at a neutral site. The league will make 11,500 tickets available per game to sit in the stands and in luxury suites, according to the Times. 

The league will not sell tickets to division series games, which will be held in Houston and Arlington for the National League and in Los Angeles and San Diego for the American League. The league is also not planning to sell tickets to the A.L. Championship Series, which will be played in San Diego, according to the report.  

TBS, led by its Major League Baseball post-season coverage, hit a ratings home run last week, according to Nielsen.

The network was the most watched cable service in primetime during the week of Oct. 12 through Oct. 18, averaging 4.6 million viewers – much of that coming on the strength of its MLB playoffs coverage. TBS is currently on a record ratings pace for for its post-season baseball coverage, averaging 5.9 million viewers.

ESPN was second with 3.2 million viewers, followed by CNN, which averaged 2.2 million watchers for the week -- due in large part to its Oct. 13 coverage of the Democratic Presidential debate, which drew more than 15 million viewers.

Disney Channel finished fourth with 1.6 million viewers, followed by a fifth place tie between Fox News and USA Network, each averaging 1.5 million viewers.

AMC and Discovery Channel (tied with 1.3 million viewers); HGTV (1.2 million) and History and FX (tied with 1.1 million) rounded out the top 10 most watched networks for the week.

TBS was also the top cable network on a 24-hour basis, as well as among key demos including advertiser-coveted adults 18-49, said Nielsen.

Most Watched Shows For Week Of Oct. 12 to Oct. 18

DateTelecastNetworkTotal Viewers

10/13           Nevada Democratic Presidential Debate                     CNN                15.7 million

10/13           Democratic Presidential Debate Pre-Show                  CNN                12.6 million

10/13           Democratic Presidential Debate Post-Show                CNN                12.6 million

10/18           The Walking Dead                                                        AMC                12.1 million

10/12           MNF – Pittsburgh-San Diego                                       ESPN               12.1 million

10/17           MLB NLCS – Chicago Cubs-N.Y. Mets (Gm. 1)          TBS                   7.8 million     

10/17           College Football –Michigan St.-Michigan                    ESPN                 7.3 million

10/15           MLB NLDS – L.A. Dodgers – New York Mets             TBS                   7.3 million

10/17           College Football – Florida-LSU                                   TBS                   6.7 million

10/18           MLB NLCS – Chicago Cubs-N.Y. Mets (Gm. 2)          TBS                   6.5 million

Source: Nielsen