The Colorado Buffaloes’ blowout loss to the Oregon Ducks was a ratings win for ABC as it finished as the most-watched college football game of the season in a week otherwise dominated by National Football League telecasts.
The September 23 game, in which Coach Deion Sanders’s team lost 42-6 to Oregon, drew more than 10 million viewers, making it the largest Nielsen-measured audience of the season, according to Nielsen ratings published by SportsMedia Watch.
The Colorado-Oregon game barely beat out NBC’s Ohio State-Notre Dame telecast Saturday, which averaged 9.98 million viewers.
Fox’s late Sunday-afternoon NFL game telecast was the most watched sports program for the week, averaging 24.32 million viewers, followed by NBC’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Las Vegas Raiders Sunday Night Football game, which drew 19.21 million viewers.
USA Network’s September 24 Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 NASCAR Cup Series race was the most-watched non-football telecast for the week, averaging 2 million viewers, per Nielsen.
| Date | Event | Network | Viewership |
| Sept. 24 | Fox NFL Football (late afternoon) | Fox | 24.32 million |
| Sept. 24 | Sunday Night Football | NBC | 19.21 million |
| Sept. 24 | CBS NFL Football (early afternoon) | CBS | 17.51 million |
| Sept. 18 | Monday Night Football | ABC | 15.42 million |
| Sept. 24 | Fox NFL Football (early afternoon) | Fox | 12.21 million |
| Date | Event | Network | Viewership |
| Sept. 24 | NASCAR Cup Series | USA Network | 2.00 million |
| Sept. 24 | Pro Bull Riding | CBS | 1.96 million |
| Sept. 21 | Fox Thursday Baseball | Fox | 1.58 million |
| Sept. 23 | NASCAR Xfinity Race | USA | 828,000 |
| Sept. 24 | MLB Sunday Night Baseball | ESPN | 773,000 |
