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Georgia’s big win over Clemson draws massive audience, caps off huge CFB day for ABC
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The general consensus heading into the 2021 college football season was that fans were looking forward to hopefully enjoying a normal season after COVID wreaked havoc on much of the 2020 campaign.
That anticipation, along with a strong slate of games on the first full Saturday of action, resulted in some impressive TV numbers for ABC’s Saturday tripleheader, which featured 4 of the top 5 teams in the AP preseason poll.
Leading off the slate was No. 2 Oklahoma vs. Tulane, a game that proved to be far closer than expected, and it was followed by No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 14 Miami and then No. 3 Clemson vs. No. 5 Georgia.
In all, the 3 games combined to be ABC’s best viewership numbers for a kickoff Saturday since 2017, with an average of more than 5 million viewers.
Saturday's @ABCNetwork ? tripleheader ?????????:
– Georgia/Clemson on track to become the 2nd-most-viewed Kickoff Saturday game on ??? network in 15 years
– #UGAvsCLEM, #ALAvsMIA, #OUvsTULN combined for ABC's best Kickoff Saturday tripleheader since 2017 pic.twitter.com/p4xc1uqfTS
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 5, 2021
Even more impressive were the numbers drawn for the Bulldogs 10-3 win against the Tigers, as nearly 8 million viewers on average were tuned in for the top-5 showdown.
Those numbers, as of now, are on track to to rank the Georgia-Clemson game as the second-most watched kickoff Saturday game on ABC in 15 years.
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
