ESPN networks won the noon, primetime and late night windows on Saturday and scored six of the top 10 most-viewed matchups of college football’s Week 10. This was the most-watched week of college football on ESPN in six years (since 2016’s Week 12), and ESPN networks remain on pace for their most-watched season since 2017.

LSU’s overtime upset of Alabama on ESPN (7 p.m. ET) delivered 7.6 million viewers and peaked with 10.4 million viewers, becoming ESPN’s most-watched regular season college football game since 2016 (Ole Miss/Florida State, 8.4 million viewers) and the most-watched regular season Saturday college football game since 2015, when Ole Miss/Alabama brought in an audience of 7.6 million. The Tigers/Tide tussle ranks as the sixth-best Saturday ESPN game in network history and sixth-best game on any network this season. The primetime presentation is ESPN’s most-watched non-NFL telecast since Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals in May and second most-watched since the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship.

ABC’s presentation of Ohio State at Northwestern won the noon window Saturday with 4.8 million viewers – ABC’s best noon game of the season. Other Week 10 window standouts include Florida at Texas A&M (2.7M | ESPN, noon, second best game at noon across all networks) and California at USC (2.0M | ESPN, 11:15p), both ranking among the best games in their respective windows this season.

In all, college football’s upsets, high-octane matchups and rivalries from Week 10 made Saturday, Nov. 5 the most-consumed Saturday of college football across all networks this year (based on minutes watched).

College GameDay Hits a Viewership High Between the Hedges
College GameDay Built by The Home Depot’s visit to Athens is the show’s second-best audience of the season, scoring 2.24 million viewers and nearly 3 million viewers in the show’s final hour. The audience is up 22% year-over-year (2021 Week 10: Cincinnati), and the prelude to the Game of the Century is one of the top 10 most-watched episodes of the show since it expanded to three hours in 2013. Through 10 weeks, College GameDay is off to its best 10-week start ever and is up double digits among P2+ and P18-49 viewers.

ESPN’S MOST-VIEWED GAMES OF WEEK 10

* Among college football games across all networks in Week 10

Local Markets Locked in for Week 10