The final “Week Zero” of the college football season produced some solid results for ESPN and a new high for CW.
Last weekend’s TCU-North Carolina college football game from Dublin, Ireland, averaged 4.9 million viewers on ESPN — up 10% from Kansas State-Iowa State last year (4.01M). The Tar Heels’ win, which peaked with 5.8 million viewers, trails only Florida State-Georgia Tech two years ago (5.0M) as the most-watched “Week Zero” game since Miami-Florida in 2019 (6.01M).
Airing immediately afterward, NC State-Virginia averaged 3.2 million, placing second for the week. That game aired in a competitive window that also included San Jose State-USC on NBC, which averaged 2.0 million across a Nielsen-measured linear audience and streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics.
In primetime, CW averaged its largest college football audience yet with 1.96 million for New Mexico State-Florida State, surpassing the previous record set by North Alabama-FSU in 2024 (1.33M). Florida State’s win, which peaked with 2.4 million, not only delivered the network’s top college football audience, but also its largest sports audience of any kind. CW began carrying live sporting events in 2023.
The game outdrew ABC’s competing Alabama A&M-Howard MEAC/SWAC Challenge Kickoff, which drew 1.2 million — still up 10% from last year and behind only 2024 as the highest for the event.
Note that the above comparisons are the last in which Nielsen “Big Data + Panel” figures will be compared to last year’s “panel only” results, as “Big Data” became the official currency prior to Week 1 of last season. While that means the viewership comparisons will be closer to apples-to-apples going forward — realistically, the ten percent gains mentioned above likely correspond with a slight decline in actual viewing — note that Nielsen has changed its methodology again this year to better account for co-viewing, presumably further benefiting live sports viewership.
This year marked the last “Week Zero” of the college football season, as starting next year the season will begin with a full slate of games on the weekend before Labor Day. “Week Zero” had largely consisted of a handful of games, with perhaps only one or two of any consequence.
