MLB Detroit-N.Y. Yankees gets top Sat. TV sports rating

Undefeated Notre Dame is showing the Irish brand name can still be a TV draw.

But not as big of a draw as the New York Yankees winning in Major League Baseball's postseason.

NBC's coverage of Notre Dame's controversial overtime win Saturday against visiting Stanford drew a 3.9 overnight, translating to 3.9% of households in the 56 urban TV markets measured..

That's the highest NBC/Notre Dame overnight since a Michigan-Notre Dame game in 2010 drew a 4.5 overnight.

But the Yankees' game against the Detroit Tigers on TBS on Saturday night drew 4.2% of U.S. households -- and a 5.0 overnight -- largely because of viewers tuning in late. Event ratings tend to build and then peak toward the event's conclusion, and that happened with the Yankees' win: Its rating from 8-11 p.m. ET averaged 3.9% but from 11:00 p.m. ET to 1:06 a.m. averaged 4.7% of U.S. households.

NBC says Saturday's 3.9 was the weekend's biggest college football overnight, topping ESPN's South Carolina-LSU (3.7), ABC's regionalized coverage featuring West Virginia-Texas Tech (3.1), CBS' Alabama-Missouri (2.1) and Fox's Southern California-Washington (1.8).

NBC should get another good rating Saturday as it gets Notre Dame, now ranked No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches poll and cracking the top five for the first time since 2006, at home against unranked Brigham Young.