In its debut as the new broadcast television home of SEC football, ABC scored strong numbers on the opening Saturday of the college football season.
ABC averaged 7.6 million viewers for its opening Saturday college football tripleheader, according to Nielsen fast-nationals and Adobe Analytics, trailing only 2017 as the network’s highest average on the opening Saturday of play.
The primetime Notre Dame-Texas A&M game led the way with 8.2 million, more-than-double North Carolina-South Carolina last year (3.40M) and the network’s most-watched Saturday Night Football game — in any week of the season — since Notre Dame-Ohio State on the opening Saturday two years ago (10.53M). (Keep in mind ABC has aired games in other windows that have averaged larger audiences over that span, including an afternoon Colorado-Oregon game and Sunday night FSU-LSU game last season.)
Earlier in the day, Miami’s rout of Florida averaged 6.6 million in the debut of the “SEC on ABC” — the network’s most-watched week one game in the mid-afternoon window since Michigan-Florida in 2017. That surpasses the past two “SEC on CBS” season openers, though those aired in week three.
ABC opened the day with 7.9 million for Georgia’s rout of Clemson, marking the most-watched Noon ET game on the opening Saturday of play. Notably, Clemson-Georgia had a higher peak audience (9.5M) than the primetime Notre Dame-Texas A&M game (9.3M).
Viewership unsurprisingly blew by last year’s low-wattage slate, which consisted of Virginia-Tennessee (2.46M), Boise State-Washington (1.97M) and the previously-mentioned North Carolina-South Carolina game.
Figures for the other Saturday games are unlikely to be available until Wednesday due to the Labor Day holiday.
