ASU/Oregon game sets new viewing record on FSN Arizona

According to Nielsen Media Research, last Saturday's Arizona State/Oregon contest was the third-highest rated college football game ever on FSN Arizona.

In addition, it produced the best ever Sun Devil football rating on the network for a game that wasn't against rival University of Arizona and it was the highest rating for ASU football on FSN Arizona in nearly 10 years.

The Sun Devils/Ducks telecast registered a 10.4 rating/19 share in the Phoenix market, which means that an average of 187,470 homes in the Valley watched the game. The telecast peaked at a 12.9 rating (232,535 households) and 24 share. In Phoenix, one rating point represents 18,026 households. A rating is the percentage of all television households in a market, while the share is the percentage of those television sets in use that were tuned into the game.

The 10.4 rating is Arizona State's best all-time rating for a game that wasn't against Arizona, easily surpassing the previous best of 8.9. That figure came on two separate occasions - against Washington in 1997 and versus Nebraska in 1996 when the Sun Devils shut out No. 1 and two-time defending national champion Nebraska.

The only college football games to ever register a higher rating on FSN Arizona than last Saturday's ASU/UO telecast were ASU at UA in 1997 (11.1) and ASU at UA in 1996 (10.7).

The top-five all-time ASU football ratings:

11/28/97 at Arizona 11.1

11/23/96 at Arizona 10.7

11/3/07 at Oregon 10.4

9/21/96 vs. Nebraska 8.9

11/1/97 vs. Washington St. 8.9

The Valley's television viewers made the ASU/Oregon game far and away the highest rated program of any kind in Phoenix for the entire day. Its 10.4 rating was 51% than the second-highest rated program (Law & Order-SVU on KPNX, 6.9 rating).

Last Saturday's ASU/Oregon game will be condensed into a 30-minute television show this Tuesday at 7 & 10 p.m. when Sun Devil Rewind - Arizona State at Oregon airs on FSN Arizona. The show looks back at the game with exclusive field level camera angles and sideline access while using the radio calls from Tim Healey & Jeff Van Raaphorst of the Sun Devil Sports Network.