The SEC on ABC posted another strong week of viewership.
Leading the way was Georgia’s thrilling overtime victory against Tennessee in the 3:30 p.m. ET window on ABC. The Bulldogs’ win averaged 12.6 million viewers, substantially outperforming the year-ago comparison (Texas A&M-Florida, 4.8 million viewers). It was the most-watched regular season college football game in the mid-afternoon window on ABC since 2006. Of course, that superlative comes with the litany of Nielsen-related caveats necessary to compare any historical sports viewership in 2025.
ABC saw a solid increase in primetime as well. LSU’s win over Florida averaged 7.6 million viewers in the 7:30 p.m. ET window, up 15% from Georgia-Kentucky last season (6.6 million viewers).
In an interesting quirk, ESPN’s noon ET window actually outdrew ABC’s game in the same time slot this past weekend. Georgia Tech’s tight win over Clemson averaged 4.8 million viewers on ESPN, while Alabama’s blowout win over Wisconsin averaged 4.5 million viewers on ABC. Georgia Tech-Clemson well outperformed its year-ago comparison (Memphis-FSU, 1.59 million viewers), while Wisconsin-Alabama saw a slight decline from last year (LSU-South Carolina, 4.94 million viewers).
Over on NBC and Peacock, Texas A&M and Notre Dame was the third most-watched game of the week, averaging 6.2 million viewers in the 7:30 p.m. ET window, easily beating out last year’s Indiana-UCLA game in the comparable window (1.29 million viewers). It was the most-watched Notre Dame home opener since 2018.
CBS put up a lackluster number in its 3:30 p.m. ET Big Ten window, this week featuring USC visiting Purdue. The game averaged just 1.27 million viewers up against the Georgia-Tennessee game, down 44% from last year (Notre Dame-Purde, 2.28 million viewers).
Fox’s Big Noon Saturday window also put up a lackluster viewership figure, averaging just 2.28 million viewers for Oregon-Northwestern, down 55% versus Alabama-Wisconsin last year (5.03 million viewers).
CBS viewership courtesy of TV Media Blog. Fox viewership courtesy of Sports Business Journal.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.