Deion Sanders may be able to navigate the transition period well, but now in his second year as head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, the former NFL star isn’t doing too well in the Nielsen ratings polls.
Though Prime’s team was a media darling last year, Colorado has fallen out of favor with TV viewers. The Buffaloes’ 28-9 win over rival Colorado State drew a stunned 3.25 million viewers on CBS Saturday night, a 65% drop from last year’s Rocky Mountain Showdown broadcast on ESPN (9.3 million).
The trend of diminishing returns has continued since Colorado opened its 2024 season against North Dakota State on Aug. 29. The Buffaloes’ 31-26 win averaged a solid 4.76 million viewers in primetime Thursday on ESPN, but that television audience paled in comparison to last year’s highly touted opener in Fox’s Big Noon Saturday slot. Colorado’s three-point win over TCU averaged 7.26 million viewers, a fraction of the team’s ability to draw.
Over the next three weeks, the Buffaloes averaged a staggering 8.86 million viewers, including a season-high 10.03 million on ABC. Colorado’s crushing 36-point win over the Oregon Ducks’ Hands, Wings and Webbed Feet was the second-most-watched game of the regular season, behind only FOX’s annual Ohio State-Michigan game (19.07 million viewers).
Colorado has averaged 4.56 million viewers per game through its first three nationally televised games, down more than half (-51%) from the 9.35 million viewers the team garnered during the same period in 2023. Coincidentally, football fans seemed to be starting to tire of Coach Prime even before the leaves started to change color, as by October 13, Colorado’s viewership had dropped to 3.29 million for a game against Stanford and hit a low of 2.77 million during a 26-19 loss to Oregon State on November 4.
Broadcasters are being more cautious about committing to Colorado this time around, given last season’s lackluster performance. While there’s some wiggle room on the college football television schedule, Sanders’ team has just three confirmed games nationally, including an Oct. 26 game against Cincinnati that will air on an ESPN platform yet to be determined, and a Black Friday game against Oklahoma State that will air on ABC.
Colorado currently has a 2-1 record tied with the other four teams in the Big 12. The school’s first intraconference matchup is scheduled for this Saturday, kicking off at 8 pm ET on Fox at home against Baylor University.
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