‘College GameDay’ viewership continues hot streak

Two superstar talent additions seem to be paying dividends for ESPN’s College GameDay.

After adding former Alabama head coach Nick Saban along with re-signing Pat McAfee during the offseason, ESPN’s College GameDay continues its streak of strong viewership figures. Last weekend’s episode from Eugene, Oregon clocked in at 2.3 million viewers per ESPN PR, up 8% year-over-year versus last season’s comparable episode from the University of Washington.

Saturday’s episode was the most-watched October edition of GameDay since the show expanded to its three-hour format in 2009.  The final hour averaged 3.1 million viewers and hit a peak audience of 3.5 million. All but two episodes so far this season have eclipsed the 2 million-viewer mark, the Week 0 episode from Dublin, Ireland (1.6 million) and Week 3 from South Carolina (1.98 million).

Beginning in 2021, the first season not entirely impacted by the COVID pandemic, and through the end of last season, College GameDay averaged 1.96 million viewers for its regular season broadcasts. Only 45% of episodes broke the 2 million-viewer figure that has now been surpassed nearly every week this season.

In a move that has paid off countless times for the show, GameDay chose to attend a matchup on Saturday that would not air on ESPN later. Ohio State-Oregon aired that night on NBC and attracted the second-highest audience for a college football game so far this season.

No doubt the addition of Saban, a seven-time National Championship-winning coach, and retention of McAfee, who is one of the most recognizable talents in sports media, has contributed to the success. Historically, viewership for the pregame show has trended up as the season goes along, with some of the biggest figures coming in the last few weeks of the year. If that trend continues, ESPN is on track to have one of the most-watched seasons of College GameDay in recent history.

[ESPN]