Texas’ comeback win over Ohio State on Saturday was the most-watched Week 2 game of any college football season, drawing 14 million viewers, per Nielsen numbers released Tuesday. The game also delivered ABC/ESPN its top regular-season game in 10 years, surpassing the 2016 Ohio State-Michigan game, then on ABC, which drew 16.84 million viewers.
ABC said this year’s Ohio State-Texas game peaked at 16.4 million viewers and was the most-viewed regular-season game in primetime since 2012, when Notre Dame beat Southern California. Ohio State is clearly a big draw, as is Texas: When the teams opened against each other last year in Columbus, Ohio, the game drew 16.62 million viewers for Fox. Ohio State-Michigan was also the highest-rated game of last year’s regular season (which it typically is), coming in at 18.4 million.
But Texas is also a prime draw: ABC’s highest last year was Texas-Texas A&M with 13 million, and two years ago it was Georgia’s win over Texas (13.19 million), which actually outdrew Ohio State-Michigan. The Georgia-Texas rematch in that year’s SEC championship drew even more viewers, 16.63 million.
In fact, the Disney networks have dominated college football ratings the previous two seasons, since Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC and Disney absorbed the SEC package, along with the ACC and some Big 12 games. And the first two weeks of this season, especially with the Ohio State-Texas game, have them off to another good start.
Alabama’s win over Kentucky on Saturday, a 3:30 p.m. ET game, drew 7.3 million viewers on ABC, peaking at 9 million, which the company said was “more than double” any other game in that window. Three other games on Disney networks drew at least 1.8 million viewers:
• Texas A&M’s win over Arizona State on ABC at noon (2.5 million, peaking at 3 million).
• Oklahoma State’s upset of Oregon on ESPN at noon (2.1 million, peaking at 2.9 million).
• Tennessee’s win at Georgia Tech on ESPN at 7 p.m. (1.8 million, peaking at 2.6 million).
Fox won the noon time slot, as expected: Michigan’s win over Oklahoma drew 8.22 million viewers.
NBC had the highest-watched game of Week 1: Notre Dame’s win over Wisconsin, which drew 8.1 million viewers. ABC or ESPN had eight of the 12 most-watched games, including second-place LSU-Clemson (5.75 million).
And this week, ABC has the clear marquee game, perhaps of the season: the return of LSU’s Lane Kiffin to Ole Miss, kicking off in primetime.