ABC's Saturday Night Football is Most-Watched College Football Franchise This Season
By: Caryn Robbins Oct. 05, 2016
Through college football's first five weeks, ABC's Saturday Night Football is averaging a total live audience (TV + Streaming) of 6,201,000 viewers, the most-watched COLLEGE FOOTBALL franchise on any network. The television audience is averaging 6,100,000 viewers a game, 28% better than the next best window on any other network and up 3% from the first five weeks of ABC's Saturday Night Football last season. The franchise's streaming audience has garnered 101,000 average minute viewers per game, up 84% year over year.
Accounting for all ABC games (16 games), the network's total live audience is 5,760,000 viewers per game, college football's most-watched network. The television audience (5,659,000 viewers) and streaming audience (101,000 viewers) is up 16% and 90%, respectively, year over year.In week 5, ABC's Saturday Night Football featured the season's first top 5 matchup - No. 3 Louisville at No. 5 Clemson (8 p.m.). The much-anticipated, ACC showdown generated a total live audience of 9,494,000 viewers, the most-watched SATURDAY COLLEGE FOOTBALL game of the season across all networks. ABC's TV audience of 9,294,000 viewers is the third most-watched October Saturday Night Football game ever (34 games).
| Rank | TV Viewers | Game | Date |
| 1 | 13,251,000 | Notre Dame at Florida State | October 18, 2014 |
| 2 | 10,367,000 | Penn State at Ohio State | October 25, 2008 |
| 3 | 9,294,000 | Louisville at Clemson | October 1, 2016 |
Saturday Night Football dates back to 2006
The stream of the Tigers' 42-36 victory generated an average minute audience of 200,000 viewers with 812,000 unique viewers watching a total of 51,107,000 minutes, making it the second-most streamed regular season COLLEGE FOOTBALL game ever for ESPN.
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