ESPN College Football Friday Primetime

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
College Football Primetime
StarringJason Benetti,
Andre Ware
Country of originUnited States
Production
Running time3 hours
Release
Original networkESPN or ESPN2
Original release2004 (2004) –
present

ESPN College Football Friday Primetime is a live game presentation of Division I-FBS college football on ESPN or sometimes ESPN2 and ESPNU. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, games air on ABC. There is no main sponsor. The game telecast airs every Friday night during the college football regular season. In 2021, the games will be announced by Jason Benetti and Andre Ware, with as the sideline reporter. The game is generally preceded by College Football Scoreboard with Matt Barrie, Jesse Palmer and Joey Galloway. They also present the halftime report.

Since debuting in 2004, it has broadcast games from numerous conferences including the Pac-12, ACC, Big Ten and the American.

The biggest game for this package occurred on September 28, 2007, when the at the time fifth-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers took on the eighteenth-ranked South Florida Bulls. The game drew a 2.7 rating.

2021 Season Ratings[]

Date Matchup network Viewers (millions) TV Rating[1]
September 3, 6:00 ET #10 North Carolina 10 Virginia Tech 17 ESPN 2.5 1.6
September 3, 9:00 ET Michigan State 38 Northwestern 21 ESPN 2.1 1.2
September 10, 7:30 ET Kansas 22 #17 Coastal Carolina 59 ESPN2 1.3 0.8
September 17, 7:30 ET UCF 35 Louisville 42 ESPN 1.8 1.1
September 24, 7:30 ET Wake Forest 37 Virginia 14 ESPN2 1.1 0.6
October 1, 7:30 ET Houston 45 Tulsa 10 ESPN 548K 0.32
October 8, 7:00 ET Temple 3 #5 Cincinnati 52 ESPN 1.1 0.7
October 8, 10:30 ET Stanford 10 #22 Arizona State 28 ESPN 1.1 0.7
October 15, 7:00 ET Clemson 17 Syracuse 14 ESPN 2.1 1.2
October 15, 10:30 ET Cal 17 #9 Oregon 24 ESPN 1.4 0.8
October 22, 7:00 ET Memphis 7 UCF 24 ESPN2 793K 0.5
October 22, 10:30 ET Washington 21 Arizona 16 ESPN2 660K 0.4
October 29, 7:30 ET Navy 20 Tulsa 17 ESPN2 684K 0.4
November 5, 7:30 ET Virginia Tech 3 Boston College 17 ESPN2 1.2 0.7
November 12, 7:30 ET #5 Cincinnati 45 USF 28 ESPN2 1.1 0.7
November 19, 9:00 ET Memphis 13 #24 Houston 31 ESPN2 611K 0.3
November 26, 3:30 ET #4 Cincinnati 35 East Carolina 13 ABC 2.3 1.3
November 26, 3:30 ET South Florida 13 UCF 17 ESPN 711K 0.3
November 26, 7:00 ET North Carolina 30 #20 NC State 34 ESPN 2.6 1.4
December 3, 8:00 ET #17 Utah 38 #10 Oregon 10 ABC (Pac-12 Championship Game) 4.2 2.5

Regular Season Most Watched Games[]

Games in this table may include those that aired the day after Thanksgiving. Unlike most Friday games, these games air in the afternoon and tend to feature better teams and thus better ratings. These games also may not air under the ESPN College Football Friday Primetime branding.

Rank Date Matchup Network TV Rating Viewers (millions) Significance
1 November 27, 2015, 3:30 ET #3 Iowa 28 Nebraska 20 ABC 3.9 6.2 Iowa-Nebraska football rivalry
2 November 27, 2020, 3:30 ET #2 Notre Dame 31 #19 North Carolina 17 ABC 3.5 6.0
3 November 24, 2018, 8:00 ET #6 Oklahoma 59 #12 West Virginia 56 ESPN 3.0 5.6
4 November 27, 2015, 8:00 ET #7 Baylor 21 #15 TCU 28 ESPN 3.1 5.1
5 November 24, 2017, 12:00 ET #22 South Florida 42 #13 UCF 49 ABC 2.7 4.7
6 November 24, 2017, 3:30 ET #2 Miami 14 Pitt 24 ABC 2.8 4.6
7 November 23, 2012, 12:00 ET #17 Nebraska 13 Iowa 7 ABC 2.8 4.2 Iowa-Nebraska football rivalry
8 August 31, 2012, 8:00 ET #24 Boise State 13 #13 Michigan State 17 ESPN 2.7 4.2
9 November 25, 2016, 4:00 ET #16 Nebraska 10 Iowa 40 ABC 2.4 4.1 Iowa-Nebraska football rivalry
10 November 28, 2014, 12:00 ET Nebraska 37 Iowa 34 ABC 2.4 3.9 Iowa-Nebraska football rivalry

By year[]

Game Play- by- Play Analyst(s) Field Reporter(s)
2004 Tim Ryan Rod Gilmore and Trevor Matich Heather Cox
2005 Dave Pasch Stacey Dales
2006 Heather Cox
2007 Sean McDonough Chris Spielman Rob Stone
2008
2009 Joe Tessitore Rod Gilmore
2010 Rob Stone
2011
2012 Carter Blackburn Jemele Hill
2013 Danny Kanell Allison Williams
2014 Dave Flemming
2015 Mack Brown
2016 Adam Amin Molly McGrath
2017 Dusty Dvoracek
2018 Jason Benetti Kelly Stouffer Olivia Harlan
2019 Dave Flemming Louis Riddick, or Gene Chizik, or Jim L. Mora Paul Carcaterra
2020 Jason Benetti Andre Ware
2021

Game features[]

  • Starting Lineups: The starting lineups are presented during the first possession of each team's offense and defense.
  • Impact Players: Following the starting lineups, McDonough and Spielman run down the top two or three impact players on each teams side of the ball.
  • Halftime Report: The crew of Chris Cotter, Lou Holtz and Mark May present the halftime report, which features analysis of the first half, highlights of earlier games and a look at other happenings in the sports world.
  • SportsCenter In-game: This segment appears during various time in the game, and gives up to the minute highlights when something big happens in another game.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "College Football TV Ratings". SportsMediaWatch.com. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
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