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War on I-4 TV Viewership Up Slightly from Last Year

Knights and Bulls pull a solid number on ESPN

Gabe Davis
Derek Warden

TV viewer numbers for the UCF Knights’ 34-7 win over the South Florida Bulls on Black Friday night was slightly up from last year’s version of War on I-4. This year’s game, which kicked off at 7 p.m., was watched by 1.758 million viewers compared to last year’s game in Tampa, which started at 4 p.m. and pulled 1.741 million viewers.

It is the 2nd-most watched War on I-4 game ever behind the 2017 classic, which it did 4.7 million viewers on ABC. It is also the 4th game between the two schools that has drawn more than a million viewers.

All-time War on I-4 TV Viewer Numbers

  1. South Florida at UCF (11/24/2017) - 4.7 million (ABC, 3:30 p.m. ET)
  2. South Florida at UCF (11/29/2019) - 1.758 million (ESPN Primetime)
  3. UCF at South Florida (11/23/2018) - 1.741 million (ESPN, 4:15 p.m. ET)
  4. South Florida at UCF (11/29/2013) - 1.220 million (ESPN Primetime)

The Bulls-Knights game was down significantly from the identical primetime slot on ESPN last year, which featured Oklahoma at West Virginia (5.63 million viewers) and the previous year between Virginia Tech and Virginia (2.14 million viewers).

Here are UCF’s TV ratings so far this year:

UCF Football 2019 TV Viewership Numbers

Game Network Time Slot (ET) Viewers
Game Network Time Slot (ET) Viewers
UCF at Pittsburgh ABC/ESPN2 3:30 p.m. 2.55 million
South Florida at UCF ESPN 8 p.m. 1.758 million
UCF at Cincinnati ESPN 8 p.m. (Friday) 1.44 million
Stanford at UCF ESPN 3:30 p.m. 967,000
UCF at Tulsa ESPN2 7 p.m. (Friday) 787,000
Houston at UCF ESPN2 Noon 736,000
UConn at UCF ESPN2 7 p.m. 322,000
UCF at Temple ESPN2 7 p.m. 277,000
All data according to SportsMediaWatch.com

UCF also accounts for four of the top ten most-watched American Athletic Conference football games in 2019, more than any other team in the league.

Top Ten Most-Watched AAC Football Games in 2019

Game Date Network Time Slot (ET) Viewers
Game Date Network Time Slot (ET) Viewers
SMU at Memphis Saturday, November 2 ABC 8 p.m. 2.95 million
Cincinnati at Memphis Friday, November 29 ABC 3:30 p.m. 2.51 million
South Florida at UCF Friday, November 29 ESPN 8 p.m. 1.758 million
UCF at Cincinnati Friday, October 4 ESPN 8 p.m. 1.44 million
Houston at Tulane Thursday, September 19 ESPN 8 p.m. 1.03 million
UCF at Tulsa Friday, November 8 ESPN2 7 p.m. 787,000
SMU at Houston Thursday, October 24 ESPN 7:30 p.m. 769,000
Navy at UConn Friday, November 1 ESPN2 7 p.m. 742,000
Houston at UCF Saturday, November 2 ESPN2 Noon 736,000
Navy at Memphis Thursday, September 26 ESPN 8 p.m. 730,000
Data: SportsMediaWatch.com UCF games in bold