It seems many of you wanted to say goodbye to Lee Corso — a record number, in fact.

Per fast national data from Nielsen, Saturday’s episode of ESPN’s “College GameDay” — the last for the 90-year-old Corso — was the most-watched episode in the history of the college football traveling road show. Corso’s bon voyage averaged 3.5 million viewers on ESPN and ESPNU, and peaked at 5.1 million viewers when Corso made his final headgear selection as the Ohio State marching band spelled out “CORSO” on the field inside Ohio Stadium.

To put this viewership number in perspective, the 3.5 million viewers shattered the previous record by nearly 1 million viewers. The previous regular-season “College GameDay” record was 2.6 million viewers for a Nov. 24, 2007, episode. Corso’s final show also beat a “College GameDay” episode leading into the 2013 BCS National Championship that drew 3.1 million viewers.

The final numbers, via Nielsen’s Final Big Data + Panel viewership, will be available Wednesday. They will not have an impact on the fact this will be the most-watched “College GameDay” ever.

Corso’s final appearance after 38 seasons on the show concluded 431 headgear picks. As the show concluded, he slipped on Brutus Buckeye’s head to signify his prediction that the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes would beat the No. 1 Texas Longhorns on Saturday. It was a repeat of Corso’s first headgear selection in Columbus on Oct. 5, 1996, ahead of the Ohio State-Penn State game. Corso was correct 66.6 percent of the time, per Sportico, including his correct prediction Saturday. Even better, Corso didn’t just nail his headgear pick Saturday, he nailed every pick, going out a perfect 6-0.

It cannot be overstated how much Corso contributed to the television rise of college football. He began his broadcast career at ESPN as an original analyst on “College GameDay” in 1987 after coaching tenures with Louisville, Indiana and Northern Illinois. His enthusiasm and innate understanding that college football television was a show above all helped make “GameDay” one of the most iconic studio shows in sports television history.

One of the sports media subplots to this season will be whether Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” can slice into “GameDay”’s viewership dominance. Last year, “College GameDay” averaged 2.8 million viewers to “Big Noon”’s 1.5 million viewers in the final hour of each show. For the full shows, “GameDay” averaged 2.2 million viewers, and “Big Noon” averaged 1.1 million viewers.

In addition to everything else, Corso gave ESPN executives one last gift:

They will have a big lead in viewership when the final numbers come out Wednesday.

(Photo: Adam Cairns / USA Today via Imagn Images)