Tennessee Football continues to be a needle-mover in the college football television ratings.
On Tuesday, CBS announced that the week four matchup between Tennessee and Florida was the “most-watched Florida-Tennessee game in 13 years.”
In addition, CBS also announced that the game averaged 5.571 million viewers, which was a “+34% vs. last year’s comparable window.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Tennessee and Florida reached an even higher mark. The game on Saturday in Knoxville peaked at an astounding 6.736 million viewers.
This isn’t Tennessee’s first time drawing massive multi-million viewership numbers this year, and there have only been four games to the season. In week two, Tennessee at Pittsburgh, the Vols and Panthers drew a remarkable 4.5 million viewers, making it the second most-viewed game of that college football weekend across all networks.
That’s well over 10 million combined viewers for Tennessee’s two Top 25 matchups in the first four weeks of the season.
There are several different factors as to why Tennessee is drawing such high numbers. And those factors are both on and off the field of play.
More from RTI: WATCH: Tennessee’s Florida Recap Video Will Give You Chills
On one hand, Tennessee boasts the top-scoring offense in the country and has set an expectation for fireworks during their games. Tennessee’s style of play is fast-paced and up-tempo, and can really appeal to casual viewers who are just flipping the channels and looking for something exciting to watch. Not to mention, to put it plainly, Tennessee is just good this season. Or, at the very least, has gotten out to one of the hottest starts in the country.
Starting the season unranked, Tennessee has risen up to the No. 8 team in the country after a 4-0 start.
And on the other hand, the environment and atmosphere of Knoxville is something that is highly attractive when watching football on television. Thanks to the ESPN College GameDay broadcast, college football spectators became aware of the magnitude of the Tennessee-Florida game, how Tennessee fans were preparing for it, and that a checkerboarded stadium was imminent in just a few hours to come.
Add in beautiful weather in Knoxville and it’s easy to see why Saturday’s contest against Florida was the most watched game of the weekend across the sport.
The number 38 is a pretty magical number for Tennessee’s offense.
Tennessee has scored 38 points or more in 11 of Tennessee’s 17 games under head coach Josh Heupel. That’s an incredible number. And of those 11 games scoring 38 points or more, Tennessee has won 10 of them.
Heupel’s Tennessee offense is fast, fun, and a point-scoring machine. And that translates to television ratings.
CBS Sports Scores College Football’s Most-Watched Game of the Week for Second Consecutive Week: pic.twitter.com/N24xAEoiU6
— CBS Sports PR (@CBSSportsGang) September 27, 2022
