Southern Football Fans Lift ABC Ratings

(AP) Start of college football lifts ABC
NEW YORK
ABC’s best week in the television ratings since mid-June has much to do with the start of college football season.

The Nielsen company said ABC finished second behind CBS in the weekly ratings last week. The most female-friendly broadcast network largely has southern football fans to thank. The Georgia-Clemson game had the biggest audience of any opening-week game in ABC’s Saturday night college football series since 2006.

Nielsen said the game was seen by an average of 8.1 million people.

CBS’ summertime hit “Under the Dome” was again the nation’s most popular TV show last week, the week before Labor Day.