Nebraska/USC, Kentucky/Louisville, BC/Penn State lead cable sports TV ratings for Saturday December 27, 2014

The National University Holiday Bowl where USC edged Nebraska easily led all of the cable sports networks (and all of cable) on Saturday with 6.799 million viewers and a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating on ESPN.

The New Era Pinstripe Bowl where Penn State eked out a victory over Boston College averaged 3.96 million viewers and a 0.9 adults 18-49 rating on ESPN.

Afternoon college basketball action was second with Kentucky’s victory over Louisville averaging 3.495 million viewers and a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating on ESPN2.

Virginia Tech’s victory over Cincinnati in the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman averaged 2.92 million and a 0.6 adults 18-49 rating on ESPN.

College hoops with Alabama Birmingham at North Carolina on ESPN2 averaged 1.19 million viewers and a 0.4 adults 18-49 rating, Georgetown vs. Indiana averaged 1.254 million viewers and a 0.3 adults 18-49 rating. Gonzaga at BYU averaged 865,000 viewers and a 0.2 adults 18-49 ratng.

Cable Sports TV Ratings for Saturday December 27, 2014:

This is sorted from most-watched to least-watched. Using your browser’s search tool (usually CTRL/CMD+F) might be the faster way to go if you’re looking for something specific.

—

Note: viewership of around 100,000 or lower is technically what Nielsen refers to as a “scratch” i.e., not enough Nielsen panelists watched for Nielsen to validate it. There are around 20,000 homes in the Nielsen panel and a bit over 50,000 panelists, where 1 Nielsen panelist watching a whole telecast represents around 5,800 people.  So something averaging a million viewers averaged around 170 people out of the 50K+ panel — small, but still statistically significant. But when there’s a show with 30,000 viewers, that’s only around 5 or 6 Nielsen panelists…