With the most-watched night of the week all to itself, Notre Dame/Texas delivered big numbers for ABC.
Sunday’s Notre Dame/Texas college football game earned a 6.4 final rating and 10.9 million viewers on ABC, marking the highest rated opening weekend game, regardless of network, since Florida State/Miami on Labor Day 2005 (6.5) and the most-watched since at least 1995.
The Longhorns’ double-overtime victory, which peaked at 13.5 million in the fast-nationals, topped the previous highs of 6.3 for Boise State/Virginia Tech in 2010 and 10.6 million for Ohio State/Virginia Tech last year, both of which aired on ESPN.
Live streaming coverage on WatchESPN averaged 194,000 viewers per minute, the largest audience for regular season college football on the service. Combined, the TV and streaming broadcasts delivered 11.1 million viewers.
In addition to the above milestones, Sunday’s game also earned the fourth-largest Notre Dame audience (excluding bowls) in the past decade. ESPN and ABC have aired the ten most-watched Notre Dame games over that span, while the team’s broadcast partner NBC tops out at 12th place.
Last year’s meeting between Notre Dame and Texas, which also took place on the opening weekend, earned a 2.4 and 4.1 million on NBC. That game aired on a Saturday night opposite other college games.
CORRECTION 9/6/16: Chart updated to include last year’s Notre Dame/Clemson game as one of the ten most-watched ND telecasts in the past decade.
(Sun. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily, ESPN Media Zone)
