- Saturday Night Football: More than 5.3 Million Viewers, 55% Larger than Fox’ Prime-Time Game
- ABC Televises Most-Watched Noon Window of the Season across All Networks
- Season to Date: ESPN/ABC Televised Top 5 Most-Watched Games across All Networks; ESPN/ESPN2 Have Aired 22 of Top 23 Most-Watched Games on Cable
Led by Saturday Night Football, ABC aired the two most-watched college football games across all networks in week 4 while ESPN/ESPN2 televised the five most-watched games on cable. College football’s week 4 viewership continued the trend of ESPN’s networks generating the largest college football audiences this season across all networks, including airing the top 5 most-watched games and 22 of the top 23 most-viewed games on cable.
College Football’s Week 4
ABC’s Saturday Night Football: Up 40% Year-Over-Year; Peaks at Nearly 8 Million Viewers
ABC’s Saturday Night Football featuring Penn State at Iowa (7:30 p.m. ET) delivered a total live audience of 5,341,000 viewers, up 40% from last season’s week 4 SNF game (Stanford at UCLA) and 55% higher than Fox’ TV-only audience for Notre Dame at Michigan State.
Additional highlights
- ABC Wins the Night: For the fourth consecutive week of the college football season, Saturday Night Football helped ABC win the night among households, viewers and all key male and adult demos (M18-34, M18-49, M25-54, P18-34, P18-49 and P25-54).
- Final Drive Peaks Audience: The telecast peaked at 7,948,000 TV viewers (11-11:15 p.m.) as Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley found wide receiver Juwan Johnson for the game-winning touchdown with time expiring.
ABC Regional Telecast Delivers Most-Watched Noon Window of the Season
ABC’s regionalized action, NC State at Florida State and Texas Tech at Houston (noon), generated a total live audience of 3,850,000 viewers, the most-watched noon game window of the season and the second most-watched telecast of the week across all networks. The viewership was up 48% from last year’s comparable window (Florida State at South Florida).
ESPN Televises Four Most-Watched Games on Cable in Week 4; ESPN2 on Friday Beats Three FS1 Games on Saturday
ESPN and ESPN2 combined to televise the five most-watched cable games of the week, led by Mississippi State at Georgia (2,897,000 TV + streaming viewers). The audience for Georgia’s 31-3 victory is a top 5 cable audience this season and 131% higher than FS1’s TV-only audience for their prime time game. Additional ESPN/ESPN highlights:
- Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (noon) and TCU at Oklahoma State’s (3:30 p.m.) total live audiences – 2,708,000 viewers and 2,574,000 viewers, respectively – are cable’s best non-primetime audiences of the season.
- UCLA at Stanford (10:30 p.m.) total live audience of 1,677,000 viewers beat FS1 in the late window by 60%.
- Virginia at Boise State total live audience of 1,324,000 viewers on ESPN2 (Friday, Sept. 22) had a 128% larger audience than FS1’s Friday night game and greater than all three of FS1s Saturday games.
2017 College Football Season to Date
- Saturday Night Football Up 49%, By Far Best Prime-Time Audience
ABC’s Saturday Night Football is averaging a total live audience of 7,805,000 viewers a game, up 49% from last season’s first four weeks and 150% higher than FOX’ four-week TV-only prime-time audience. - ESPN’s Networks Generated College Football’s Largest Audiences This Season – on Broadcast and Cable
ESPN/ABC have combined to air the top five and seven of the top eight most-watched games this season. Additionally, ESPN and ESPN2 have combined to televise 22 of the 23 most-viewed games on cable.
Most-Watched College Football Games Across All Networks
| Rank | Network | TV Viewership | Game | Date |
| 1 | ABC | 12,343,000 | Florida State vs. Alabama | Sept. 2 |
| 2 | ABC | 8,086,000 | Oklahoma at Ohio State | Sept. 9 |
| 3 | ABC | 7,655,000 | Michigan at Florida | Sept. 2 |
| 4 | ABC | 5,259,000 | Penn State at Iowa | Sept. 23 |
| 5 | ESPN | 5,141,000 | Tennessee vs. Georgia Tech | Sept. 4 |
| 6 | CBS | 5,137,000 | Tennessee at Florida | Sept. 16 |
| 7 | ESPN | 5,135,000 | Ohio State at Indiana | Aug. 31 |
| 8 | ABC | 5,068,000 | Clemson at Louisville | Sept. 16 |
Please note: ESPN introduced a new system of reporting beginning with programming on Monday, Sept. 25. However, college football’s week 4 falls under the previous reporting style and is reflected in this release.
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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; Derek.Volner@ESPN.com and @DerekVolner
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