A Top 25 thriller involving Notre Dame did unsurprisingly well for ABC.
Saturday’s Notre Dame/Clemson college football game drew a 4.5 final rating and 7.7 million viewers on ABC, up 73% in ratings and 89% in viewership from Notre Dame/Syracuse last year (2.6, 4.1M) and up 13% in both measures from Wisconsin/Ohio State in 2013 (4.0, 6.8M).
The Tigers’ close win ranks as the fourth-most watched college football telecast on any network this season, trailing only Ohio State/Virginia Tech on Labor Day (10.6M), Wisconsin/Alabama on the opening Saturday (8.0M) and Oregon/Michigan State in week two (7.9M). Head-to-head, Notre Dame/Clemson crushed competing coverage of Mississippi/Florida on ESPN (2.1, 3.7M) and Arizona State/UCLA on FOX (1.4, 2.2M).
Earlier in the day, regional coverage featuring Ohio State/Indiana drew 7.3 million viewers — up 33% from last year (5.5M) and up 150% from 2013 (2.9M), both of which were also regional windows. The rating was not immediately available. The telecast, which also included Texas Tech/Baylor, scored the second-largest college football audience of the weekend and the sixth-largest of the season.
Six games have topped the seven million mark so far this season, compared to two at the comparable point last year. That does not include Saturday’s Alabama/Georgia game on CBS, final numbers for which were unavailable.
(Sat. numbers via TV Media Insights, ESPN Media Zone)
