Georgia-Clemson matchup draws huge viewership numbers for ABC
By Jake Rill
Published:
No Week 1 matchup was more highly anticipated than the clash between Georgia and Clemson on Saturday night. And the pair of top programs delivered a close, competitive game, with the Bulldogs pulling out a 10-3 victory in Charlotte.
As you might expect, a ton of people tuned in to watch this opening contest. ESPN announced that there were 8.86 million viewers for the Georgia-Clemson game on ABC. It was the second-highest watched Saturday kickoff game for the network in the past 20 years, behind only Alabama-Florida State in 2017.
It was also the most-watched game of the weekend, ahead of Notre Dame-Florida State (7.75 million viewers on ABC) and Alabama-Miami (5.67 million viewers on ABC). Georgia-Clemson also ranked in the top 5 for regular-season college football games aired on ABC in the past 5 years.
Outside of the games that aired on ABC, the most-watched contest was Monday night’s matchup between Ole Miss and Louisville, which drew 2.94 million viewers on ESPN.
The viewership numbers may have been even higher if it wasn’t for the return of fans to stadiums. In addition to all those who watched Georgia-Clemson at home, there were 74,187 people at Bank of America Stadium for the huge game.
Considering it was the opening weekend of college football and Georgia-Clemson was a matchup between a pair of top-5 teams, there may not be higher viewership numbers for a game until much later in the 2021 season.
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
