Keyed by a top-five matchup between Notre Dame and Ohio State, the college football season got off to a strong start in the ratings on ABC and ESPN.
Last Saturday’s Notre Dame-Ohio State college football game averaged a 5.2 rating and 10.53 million viewers on ABC, up 13% in ratings and 16% in viewership from Georgia-Clemson last year and the most-watched game on the opening weekend of play since Alabama-Florida State five years ago (6.9, 12.34M).
The Buckeyes’ win delivered the fourth-largest opening weekend audience on record, behind the aforementioned Alabama-FSU game, Notre Dame-Texas on a Sunday night in 2016 (10.95M) and Ohio State-Virginia Tech on Labor Day in 2015 (10.59M).
ABC averaged 7.1 million viewers for its four opening weekend games, up 12% from last year and its most watched opening weekend since 2016. The network scored the three largest audiences of week one with Sunday’s FSU-LSU thriller second at a 3.95 (-5%) and 7.55 million and Georgia’s Saturday rout of Oregon third at a 3.2 (+7%) and 6.20 million.
With no competing Noon ET window on FOX, the network’s Colorado State-Michigan opener (2.2, 3.93M) jumped more than 50 percent from last year.
Shifting to ESPN, Monday’s Clemson-Georgia Tech game led the way with 4.86 million viewers — up 57% from last year and the network’s most-watched weeknight game since the same Labor Day window in 2019 (Notre Dame-Louisville: 5.68M). Utah-Florida was its top Saturday game at a 1.4 and 2.95 million (more-than-triple Texas Tech-Houston last year), followed by Cincinnati-Arkansas at a 1.5 and 2.90 million (more-than-double West Virginia-Maryland last year).
ESPN averaged 2.7 million for its seven total week one games (+69%). Like ABC, ESPN had its most-watched opening weekend since 2016.
ESPN2 topped out at a 0.7 and 1.35 million for Western Michigan-Michigan State on Friday night, a game that was bumped from its original ESPN slot in favor of Serena Williams’ final tennis match. Ratings and viewership sank were just half of what North Carolina-Virginia Tech drew on the ESPN flagship last year. ESPNU topped out at 520,000 for North Carolina’s high-scoring win over Appalachian State.
Pickings were slim outside of the ESPN family of networks. As previously noted, FOX drew a 2.1 and 3.51 million for Penn State-Purdue on Thursday. The network’s lone Saturday game — UTEP-Oklahoma — was not nearly as strong a draw at a 0.7 and 1.22 million, but that was still enough to outdraw the mere 0.59 and 921,000 CBS drew for Arizona-San Diego State. Big Ten Network was not far behind CBS with its 889,000 for North Dakota-Nebraska.
The full list of opening weekend college football TV ratings can be found on this page.
(Nielsen estimates from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 9.7)
