One of the highest-profile opening weekend matchups in memory delivered record numbers for ABC.
Alabama-Florida State delivered a 6.9 rating and 12.3 million viewers on ABC’s Saturday Night Football over the weekend, up 50% in ratings and 55% in viewership from Alabama-USC last year (4.6, 7.9M) and up 60% and 55% respectively from Alabama-Wisconsin in 2015 (4.3, 8.0M).
The Tide’s win, which peaked with 14.1 million viewers from 9-9:30 PM ET, delivered the largest opening weekend college football audience on record (dating back to at least 1996) — topping the previous high of 10.9 million for Notre Dame-Texas last year.
It also tied the highest opening weekend rating in at least 20 years, matching a Monday night FSU-Texas A&M game in 1998. That 1998 game had just 9.1 million viewers, an indication of just how much viewership has grown over that span.
Including streaming viewership, Saturday’s game had 12.6 million viewers — still the largest opening weekend audience on record.
Earlier in the day, Michigan-Florida drew a 4.9 and 7.7 million viewers, up 7% in ratings but down 2% in viewership compared to LSU-Wisconsin last year (4.6, 7.8M). With streaming viewership included, the game had 7.8 million — still down 2% from last year’s 8.0 million.
Despite the dip, it was ABC’s third-most watched afternoon game on the opening weekend of the season.
Rounding out ABC’s tripleheader, Akron-Penn State pulled a 1.5 and 2.3 million — down 57% in ratings and 59% in viewership from Oklahoma-Houston last year (3.5, 5.7M). There was no comparable window in 2015.
[Wknd. numbers from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 9.6]
