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TV Numbers for UCF’s Dominant Win over UConn Down from 2018

It was over early.

By Eric Lopez
Derek Warden

The UCF Knights’ dominant 56-21 win over UConn on Saturday night was watched by 322,000 viewers on ESPN2, according to SportsBuzzDaily.com.

The number is down from last year’s UCF win over UConn (444,000), which aired on the opening Thursday night of the season on August 30, 2018 on ESPNU.

The viewership number is also down compared to college football games that have aired in the 7 p.m. slot on ESPN2 this season:

  • 9-21-19: Old Dominion at Virginia - 414,000
  • 9-14-19: Kent State at Auburn - 625,000
  • 9-7-19: Tulane at Auburn - 763,000

It was also significantly down from last year’s game between Virginia Tech and Duke (723,000) which aired in this same time slot on the same weekend.

When the time for this game was announced couple weeks ago, I personally was shocked that this game was put at 7 p.m. Perhaps they were banking on UCF being undefeated going into this game as a narrative to draw more viewers. The slate of games was not good this weekend, and the game being a blowout in the first quarter all contributed to the number.

UConn Football also does not draw viewers. Saturday night’s game was the 5th most viewed Football game involving UConn since the start of 2016 season, trailing the following:

  1. September 29, 2016 at Houston on ESPN - 1,421,000 viewers
  2. October 6, 2017 vs. Memphis on ESPN - 769,000 viewers
  3. November 4, 2016 vs. Temple on ESPN - 523,000 viewers
  4. August 30, 2018 vs. UCF on ESPNU - 444,000 viewers
  5. September 28, 2019 at UCF on ESPN2 - 323,000 viewers

This week will be a better read for how UCF draws, as it will be on Friday night on ESPN at Cincinnati with an 8 p.m. kick-off. But the game will have tough competition, going head-to-head with MLB playoff games on FS1 and MLB Network.

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