Notre Dame-Florida State: Most-Viewed October College Football Telecast across All Networks on Record

Mike Humes

October 21, 2014

Most-Viewed Game of Season & Largest on ABC/ESPN Since 2012
ESPN and ABC have Televised the Eight Most-Viewed Games involving Notre Dame since 2005
ABC Wins Saturday Night Among Households, Viewers & Key Demos
WatchESPN Posts Regular-Season College Football Records
Birmingham & Columbus Top Markets
Most Social Game of the Season

The ABC Saturday Night Football telecast of then-No. 2 Florida State defeating No. 5 Notre Dame 31-27 on October 18 averaged 13,251,000 viewers and a 7.9 household rating, making it the most-viewed college football game of the 2014 season and largest audience for a regular-season game on an ESPN platform since November 24, 2012 (No. 1 Notre Dame’s 22-13 victory over USC averaged 16,059,000 viewers).

The game also garnered average minute audience, unique viewers and total minutes audience records for WatchESPN. The coverage added an additional 81,715 viewers in the average minute audience to ABC’s telecast, and generated 393,000 unique viewers and 19,448,000 live minutes viewed.

October Record: Saturday’s telecast generated the largest audience for a college football game in the month of October across all networks on record (records begin in 1991).
Top Eight Most-Viewed Notre Dame Games since 2005: With Saturday’s telecast, ABC and ESPN have combined to televise the eight most-viewed regular-season college football games involving Notre Dame since 2005. The two largest audiences featured matchups against USC, both on ABC, with a 2012 telecast averaging 16,059,000 viewers and a 2006 contest generating 14,647,000 viewers. This past weekend is the third most-viewed game since 2005.
ABC Wins Saturday Night: Led by Saturday Night Football, ABC won the night across all networks among households, viewers, and key adult and male demographics (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54), giving ABC and ESPN a third consecutive victory in the audience categories. With Saturday’s game, ABC or ESPN have won the night among the key adult and male demographics on seven of the eight Saturdays this season.

Birmingham and Columbus Top Two Markets
Birmingham led all markets for the Saturday Night Football telecast with a 20.7 rating, followed by Columbus (18.0), Jacksonville (17.4), Indianapolis (15.7), Dayton (15.5), West Palm Beach (14.7), Orlando (13.3), Greenville (13.2), Ft. Myers (13.1), Cleveland (12.3) and Oklahoma City (12.3).

The Social Impact
Saturday’s game was the most social college football game of the season, generating 539,000 tweets about the matchup on the day. ABC’s coverage of Clemson at Florida State on September 20 is the second most social game of the season with 471,000 tweets.

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