Tennessee's Cinematic Classic, 52-49 Win Over Alabama Dominated TV Ratings Saturday

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Oh, the mass of humanity that gathered from blade-to-blade on the field of Neyland Stadium in mere seconds after No. 6 Tennessee's thrilling, 52-49 victory over No. 3 Alabama on a walk-off field goal by Chase McGrath Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Thrilling, even if you were the most casual viewer switching channels between that and the Houston Astros' 1-0 win over Seattle in 18 innings on TBS.

And, oh, the mass of humanity watching Tennessee-Alabama on CBS. The game drew college football season highs for a rating at 6.1 and for viewers at 11.56 million, according to SportsMediaWatch, which uses numbers from ShowBuzz Daily, Sports Business Daily and Programming Insider.

The previous high rating and viewership were 5.7 and 10.6 million for Alabama's 20-19 win at Texas on Sept. 10 on FOX.

The Tennessee-Alabama game soundly beat the Astros-Mariners American League Division Series finale, which drew a 2.01 rating. And the game was the most watched sporting event on Saturday. The Penn State-Michigan game on FOX drew a 3.66 rating and 6.45 million viewers.

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Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.