Year 2 of the SEC on ABC continued its historic start to the year with its Week 3 slate. That included Georgia’s overtime win at Tennessee, which led all networks.
The thriller at Neyland Stadium averaged 12.4 million viewers, ESPN announced – ABC’s biggest audience of the season. It’s the second most-watched game of the 2025 campaign, trailing only the Week 1 matchup between Texas and Oklahoma, which averaged more than 16 million viewers on FOX.
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Georgia at Tennessee highlighted the 3:30 p.m. ET slot, and the network was able to capitalize on a day of weather delays during games on other networks. ABC also won the primetime window with 7.6 million people tuning in on average for LSU’s victory over Florida at Death Valley, becoming the second most-watched game of the day.
All told, ABC is off to its best start through three weeks on record, ESPN announced. The network is averaging 7.8 million viewers, which is up 41% year-over-year, and has been in the top five most-watched game each week of the young season.
More college football TV ratings from Week 3
ABC’s Week 3 tripleheader took three of the top five spots during Saturday’s slate of games, according to data compiled from press releases. NBC aired Texas A&M’s win over Notre Dame and took the No. 3 spot as 6.2 million people tuned in for the shootout at Notre Dame Stadium.
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One of the day’s biggest upsets, though, came on ESPN. Georgia Tech used a long field goal to get a walk-off victory over Clemson at home, sending the Tigers to a 1-2 record to start the year after they fell to LSU in the season opener. Saturday’s upset drew 4.8 million people on average and became the day’s fourth most-watched game.
Additionally, ESPN is seeing success with its Friday night primetime matchups. Colorado and Houston squared off in the slot in Week 3, averaging 2.9 million viewers in the process. The Buffaloes looked like they would keep things close against the Cougars, but UH turned on the jets in the second half to eventually come away with the blowout win.
Full Week 3 TV ratings data for FOX was not available at the time of publication. However, analyst Michael Mulvihill said the uptick in college football TV ratings and viewership isn’t just due to the Nielsen Big Data + Panel metrics introduced at the beginning of the month. The previously used “panel only” numbers still show a 16% increase, and viewership is up 24% using Big Data + Panel, Mulvihill said.
