Saturday nights: The future of big-time TV sports?

• Alabama-LSU was the highest rated college football this year
• Dan Patrick's radio show was never going back to ESPN
• Fox's car commercial/pregame show

Programmers follow TV ratings trends. And this weekend shows why you might see more marquee college football -- and perhaps events across the sports spectrum -- moving to Saturday nights.

It's supposed to be TV's least-watched night. When ABC aired four Saturday primetime games in 2005, it was just a little experiment to see if football could draw a few eyeballs in a TV dead zone.

Now, Saturday nights are being transformed. Consider that CBS' primetime Alabama-LSU drew a 7 overnight -- translating to 7% of households in the 56 urban markets measured for overnights -- which is the highest college football game rating this year. Last month, without football, CBS Saturday primetime averaged a 3.1 overnight. (The previous record -- a 5.9 overnight for Notre Dame-Oklahoma on ABC -- came the previous Saturday night.)

But there were plenty of eyeballs left over for Fox, which airs Saturday night games in its first year of regular-season college football. Its Oregon-USC Saturday night game drew a 3.5 overnight -- the network's highest college overnight this season.

Add the 1.9 overnight for Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. on ABC -- and Saturday night college football ratings for ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU -- and national TV college football drew a total audience that rivals what the NFL draws on Sunday evening, which is TV's most-watched night.

The trend isn't limited to college football: As Fox expanded its Saturday night MLB action, its night games this season outdrew Saturday afternoon action by 25%.

NBC's Breeders Cup suggests more evidence of Saturday night being transformed into a big TV sports night. Despite the big competition from football, the Cup drew a 2.2 overnight -- up 83% from ESPN's late-afternoon coverage last year. (Although that comes with an asterisk: The Cup got a fabulous lead-in from NBC's triple-overtime Notre Dame win, which drew a 4.3 overnight -- NBC's best Fighting Irish overnight in two years.)

So what's next? With TV sports re-inventing Saturday night TV, networks might start looking at using sports in TV's other really sluggish night. And, sorry high school football boosters worried about losing eyeballs to the tube, that's Friday.

Patrick wasn't returning to ESPN: Dan Patrick says one thing was clear about where his weekday radio show would be simulcast on TV: It wasn't going to end up on ESPN.

After The Dan Patrick Show's contracts with various Fox Sports Network regional channels ended last month, it seemed pretty obvious the show would end up on the NBC Sports Network cable channel. It will, as NBC announced on its Sunday night NFL coverage, and will debut Monday.

Patrick already had high-profile NBC tie-ins, including being a host of the network's NFL studio and on its Olympic coverage. He is also featured on NBCSN's Turning Point NFL highlight show. NBCSN, with tiny event ratings, needs more on-air personalities.

But Patrick said Sunday it wasn't a gimme putt that the show, owned and operated by satellite TV provider DirecTV, would end up on NBCSN: "We found other people were interested and it wasn't a case of playing favorites." (As part of the new deal, NBCSN will move Monday from DirecTV channel 603 to channel 220 -- adjacent to other DirecTV's other sports channels.)

But Patrick, who was an ESPN anchor from 1989 to 2006, wasn't going to return to being a cast member for Disney. He says he "wouldn't know" if ESPN had any interest in carrying his show because "that had no interest for me at all. I've done my stint there. Now, I enjoy the competition."

As Patrick's show gets big new hype -- like NBC plugging it on NFL coverage Sunday -- the question becomes whether it will become less independent and more of a platform to cross-promote other sports and personalities in the corporate clan. (Making it more like ESPN programming.)

Not necessarily, says Patrick: "The beauty of it was NBC understood what we were doing. ... They won't have editorial control. But they have editorial input because I'd listen to them, because I'm in business with them."

Spice rack: This was quick. Sunday, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the NFL has voided the 2011 contract extension for now-suspended New Orleans coach Sean Payton which was "casting questions" on how long he'd coach the team. Within hours, Fox's Jay Glazer offered this clip 'n save in saying Payton would sign with the Saints and "become the NFL's highest-paid coach." ... CBS' Boomer Esiason called Peyton Manning -- "the smartest football player that's ever stepped on the field." Wow, so much for those, say, U.S. presidents who played football. ... Total immersion: Fox's pregame show Sunday began with its comedian Rob Riggle doing basically an infomercial for a Ford car, followed by a closeup of the car in the Fox studio followed by pictures of the car in front of the analysts -- followed by a commercial for the car. Subtle.