or


[09/10/13 - 01:29 PM]
ESPN Posts Its Most-Viewed College Football Regular-Season Saturday Ever
ESPN further spins the numbers for Saturday, September 7.

[via press release from ESPN]

ESPN Posts Its Most-Viewed College Football Regular-Season Saturday Ever

· ESPN 15-Hour Saturday Average Outdraws Competition's Most-Viewed Game

· ESPN & ABC Televise Weekend's Four Most-Viewed Games

· ESPN Wins Night Among Viewers and Key Demographics

· ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU Each Top Competition for Saturday

· Millions Go to ESPN Mobile Offerings

· Birmingham Top Market

ESPN led all networks covering college football in week two of the season, giving the network its most-viewed Saturday ever during the regular-season (August to December). ESPN averaged 3,840,000 viewers in the 24-hour day-part (beginning at 6 a.m. ET), surpassing the previous high of 3,314,000 viewers set on September 12, 2009.

ESPN's nearly 15 hours of college football studio and game content on Saturday - beginning at 9 a.m. ET with the three-hour College GameDay Built by The Home Depot to the last whistle of Notre Dame at Michigan at 11:45 p.m. - averaged 5,557,000 viewers and a 3.5 US rating.

ESPN televised the three most-viewed games of the day; ABC's Saturday afternoon matchup was the fourth most-viewed telecast on Saturday.

· ESPN's prime-time telecast of No. 17 Michigan defeating No. 14 Notre Dame 41-30 on Saturday, Sept. 7, was the weekend's most-viewed non-NFL sporting event, averaging 8,653,000 viewers and a 5.3 US rating. The telecast was also the night's most-viewed program across all cable and broadcast networks among total viewers and key male and adult demographics (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54). In addition, Notre Dame at Michigan delivered an average viewership that is 152 percent higher than the competition's most-viewed college football game on Saturday.

· No. 11 Georgia beating No. 6 South Carolina 41-30 averaged 7,045,000 viewers and a 4.3 US rating on ESPN

· Miami's 21-16 victory over No. 12 Florida on ESPN averaged 4,596,000 viewers and a 3.1 US rating.

· ABC averaged 4,150,000 viewers and a 2.7 US rating for the split regional telecast of No. 2 Oregon defeating Virginia 59-10 and No. 3 Ohio State over San Diego State 42-7.

Saturday Game Averages Tops All Networks

The average audience for the three games that ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU each televised on Saturday, Sept. 7, was larger than any competing cable network televising college football that day. ESPN's three games averaged 6,805,000 viewers, while ESPN2's three telecasts averaged 920,000 viewers and ESPNU's 542,000 viewers.

ESPN Digital Platforms Continue to Post Growth

ESPN Digital Media's college football content across all platforms - ESPN.com, the ESPN Mobile Web college football section, ESPN's ScoreCenter app, WatchESPN/ESPN3 and the ESPN College Football app - continues to demonstrate significant growth, generating an average audience of 270,000 for Saturday, marking an increase of 9 percent over last season. Highlights:

· This weekend's college football games on WatchESPN totaled 86,700,000 live minutes, marking a 51 percent increase over 2012.

· On Saturday, more than 6,500,000 fans accessed the ScoreCenter app with an average minute audience of 104,000 (up 72 percent over 2012). ESPN's College Football app reached nearly 1,300,000 unique visitors with an average minute audience of more than 11,700 (up 45 percent over 2012).

· ESPN and ABC college football game telecasts accounted for 41 percent of the overall television-related tweets on Twitter. Notre Dame at Michigan on ESPN drew 153,000 unique Tweeters and a total of 287,000 tweets, making it the most social college football game of 2013 behind Georgia at Clemson on ABC in week one.

Birmingham leading the markets

For the second straight week, Birmingham was the highest-rated metered market for ESPN game telecasts, averaging an 18.0 for Saturday's three matchups. Greenville, S.C., was second with a 13.8 rating followed by Jacksonville (12.5), Atlanta (11.2), Detroit (10.1), Tampa-St. Pete (9.3), Orlando (9.1), Columbus (8.9), Knoxville (8.3) and Fort Myers (8.3).





  [september 2013]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S


· SATURDAY NIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL (ABC)





most recent ratings | view all posts
[06/01/26 - 11:04 AM]
ESPN Scored Most-Watched NCAA Women's College World Series Opening Thursday on Record
Arkansas-Nebraska averaged 1.4 million viewers, with a peak of 1.6 million.

[06/01/26 - 08:27 AM]
ESPN Scores Most-Viewed Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference Final Since 2015, The Latest Viewership Successes Headed Into the Stanley Cup Final
Across four games on ESPN, the series averaged 2.2 million viewers and was up 44% vs. the Western Conference Final last year (Edmonton vs. Dallas) which went five games on ESPN.

[05/29/26 - 03:02 PM]
"20/20" Is Friday's No. 1 Newsmagazine, Leading "Dateline" in Total Viewers for the 5th Consecutive Broadcast Season
"20/20" improved on the previous season in Total Viewers (+5%/+170,000 - 3.672 million vs. 3.502 million).

[05/29/26 - 03:01 PM]
ABC News Is #1 in Total Viewers Sunday Morning and in Late-Night
"Nightline" posted double-digit gains week to week in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49.

[05/28/26 - 03:23 PM]
2026 NBA Eastern Conference Finals Presented by Dunkin' Finishes Strong with Average Audience of 7.4 Million Viewers Across ESPN and ABC
Additionally, Game 4 on ESPN averaged 7.2 million viewers, marking the most-viewed Eastern Conference Finals Game 4 across any network since 2018.

[05/28/26 - 11:00 AM]
CBS Outpaces Competitors with Eight of the Top 25 Series Across All Streaming and Broadcast Originals in Nielsen's All-Series Ranker
CBS has the most top 25 series of any streaming or broadcast competitor and twice as many as its closest broadcast competitor, including six series with 10+ million viewers.

[05/28/26 - 10:31 AM]
FOX Delivers Most-Watched UFL Game Since League Started in 2024
1,593,000 viewers watched as Louisville defeated Dallas 37-23 on Sunday.

[05/28/26 - 10:26 AM]
FOX Scores with 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500
6,635,000 viewers watched Felix Rosenqvist edge David Malukas by 0.0233 seconds with a last-lap pass to win the Indy 500 Sunday on FOX.

[05/27/26 - 03:13 PM]
FOX Saturday Baseball Draws Strong Audience Over Holiday Weekend
2,355,000 viewers tuned in to the two-game slate highlighted by the Dodgers' 11-3 victory over the Brewers in most of the country.

[05/26/26 - 12:03 PM]
"Off Campus" Season 1 Has Reached 36 Million Viewers Worldwide in Its First 12 Days
Off Campus. On everyone's screen.

[05/26/26 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10: Week of May 18 - In Ruthless Pursuit, "Nemesis" Steals No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
Retirement in "The Boroughs" is anything but sleepy as the Duffer Brothers-produced sci-fi series took No. 2 on the list with 5.6 million views.

[05/26/26 - 11:00 AM]
"Dutton Ranch" Is the Biggest Original Series Debut in Paramount+ History
In addition to its record-setting performance on Paramount+, "Dutton Ranch" is also the #1 streaming series according to Nielsen based on average audience for the week of May 11 according to preliminary data.

[05/21/26 - 02:32 PM]
ESPN Delivered Most-Watched NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 1 Since 2018
The New York Knicks overtime victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers on May 19 generated an average audience of 7.1 million viewers and peaked with 8.87 million viewers at 10:45 p.m. ET.

[05/21/26 - 02:00 PM]
"Survivor" Historic 50th Season Concludes with Most-Watched Finale Since 2020
The season finale drew an average of 5.78 million viewers, based on Nielsen Preliminary panel only data.

[05/21/26 - 07:01 AM]
NBC Sports' 2026 SuperMotocross Coverage Delivers Viewership Gains and Milestones
The seven races featured on NBC and Peacock averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 468,000 viewers on NBC and Peacock, up 8% vs. 2025.