No. 16 Florida State at No. 1 Clemson: ABC’s Best Late Afternoon Game Since 2012

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No. 16 Florida State at No. 1 Clemson: ABC’s Best Late Afternoon Game Since 2012

Updated Week 11 Schedule: http://es.pn/1kkTwdY

  • College GameDay Reaches Record Audience on TV and WatchESPN
  • ESPN/ABC College Football Week 10: Three of Four Most-Watched Games
  • ABC’s Saturday Night Football Sees Increases

No. 16 Florida State at No. 1 Clemson averaged 7,563,000 viewers, ABC’s most-watched 3:30 p.m. ET game in nearly three years (Florida at Florida State on Nov. 24, 2012) and up 71% from last year’s week 10 late afternoon game (regional action: Purdue at Nebraska or TCU at West Virginia). On WatchESPN, with 105,000 average minute impressions in addition to the TV audience totaling 22,200,000 minutes viewed, the ACC showdown was the most-streamed game of the week and ranks as the sixth-most-streamed regular season college football game ever for both metrics.

College GameDay Reaches Record Audience
ESPN College GameDay Built by The Home Depot, live from Tuscaloosa in advance of then-No. 2 LSU at No. 4 Alabama, averaged 2,233,000 viewers, the most-watched regular season College GameDay since the show expanded to three hours in 2013 (41 episodes*). In this span, three of the five most watched episodes have occurred this season:

Rank Date Average Viewers Location
1. Nov. 7, 2015 2,233,000 Tuscaloosa, Ala.
2. Sept. 5, 2015 2,232,000 Fort Worth, Texas
3. Nov. 1, 2014 2,184,000 Morgantown, W.V.
4. Nov. 15, 2014 2,178,000 Tuscaloosa, Ala.
5. Oct.  3, 2015 2,144,000 Clemson, S.C.

*Data includes four hour episode (August 31, 2013), a two and a half hour episode (Sept. 12, 2015) and a two-hour Army vs. Navy edition on Dec. 13, 2014

  • On WatchESPN, with 43,000 average minute impressions in addition to the TV audience, this week’s episode is the third-most-streamed College GameDay, ever.
  • Season to date, College GameDay is averaging 1,950,000 television viewers through the season’s first 10 episodes, up 7% from both 2014 (1,827,000 viewers) and 2013 (1,816,000 viewers).

Additional Week 10 Highlights:

  • ESPN/ABC televised three of the four most-watched games across all networks
  • ABC’s Saturday Night Football featuring Minnesota at No. 3 Ohio State (8 p.m.) averaged 4,729,000 viewers, the third-most watched game of the week and up 31% from last year’s same window (Regional action: Illinois at Ohio State and Oklahoma State at Kansas State)
  • 7 Michigan State at Nebraska (7 p.m.) averaged 3,470,000, ESPN’s most-watched game of the week
  • 10 Florida at Vanderbilt (Noon on ESPN) garnered 2,736,000 viewers, up 41% from the same window last season (Wisconsin at Rutgers)
  • Across the entire week 10 slate, college football on WatchESPN was viewed on 1,700,000 unique devices that streamed 134,500,000 minutes, up 39% and 49%, respectively, over 2014’s week 10

*Please note: No. 5 Notre Dame at Pittsburgh (noon on ABC) television viewership number is not available until Thur., Nov. 12, and thus not accounted for in this release. All individual games referenced were on Sat., Nov. 7, and comparable year-over-year games were Sat., Nov. 1, 2014.

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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolner

Derek Volner

I currently lead ESPN’s NFL Communications, including Monday Night Football, NFL Draft and studio programming. Previously, I did the same for ESPN’s vast college football portfolio. I have been with ESPN since 2013.
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