FOX Sports and ESPN both opened the 2025 college football season with historic numbers, setting multiple records and highlighting the continued strength of live sports programming during Week 1.
FOX’s Big Noon Saturday matchup between Ohio State and Texas drew 16.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched Week 1 college football game on any network in history. The broadcast peaked at 18.5 million viewers between 3 and 3:15 p.m. ET, marking the third most-watched regular season college football game ever on FOX.
The network’s pregame show, Big Noon Kickoff, also thrived, averaging 3.8 million viewers in the show’s final hour leading up to kickoff of the Buckeyes and Longhorns. The entirety of the three-hour program averaged 2,007,000 viewers. That figure represents the third most-watched edition in the show’s history and the most-watched episode outside of an Ohio State–Michigan matchup. Compared to last year’s Week 1 broadcast, Big Noon Kickoff surged 306 percent.
Beyond the games, ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot broke new ground. The pregame show averaged 4.0 million viewers, the largest audience in its history. The final 15 minutes, including Lee Corso’s famed headgear pick, spiked to 5.7 million viewers across ESPN and ESPNU. When factoring in additional roadblock coverage across SEC Network, ACC Network, and FOX, as well as digital and social platforms, the segment is expected to post even higher total reach figures once complete measurement is available.
Meanwhile, ESPN and ABC combined for their strongest Kickoff Weekend on record. Across four games, ABC averaged 8.6 million viewers, with three matchups topping 10 million — a first for ESPN networks in a single weekend.
The Saturday primetime showdown between Notre Dame and Miami led the way, drawing 10.8 million viewers to become ABC’s second-best Sunday opener on record, peaking at 11.8 million. Saturday’s Alabama–Florida State clash delivered 10.7 million viewers, the most-watched mid-afternoon Week 1 broadcast on record, with a peak of 12.9 million. LSU–Clemson rounded out the trio of double-digit audiences, averaging 10.4 million viewers for the sixth most-watched Week 1 game in ABC’s history.
ESPN’s strong opening weekend was supplemented by additional games across its networks. The doubleheader included Virginia Tech–South Carolina, which drew 5.4 million viewers on Sunday night, and Syracuse–Tennessee, which pulled in 2.6 million viewers. Monday’s TCU–North Carolina matchup delivered 6.1 million viewers, peaking at 8.1 million. ESPN also benefited from solid Friday night audiences, including Georgia Tech–Colorado (3.7 million), Nebraska–Cincinnati (3.3 million), and Boise State–South Florida (2.0 million).
Taken together, the opening weekend underscored the dominance of college football as a television property. FOX claimed the single largest audience with its Ohio State–Texas showcase, while ESPN and ABC delivered record-setting depth across multiple games and studio programming. The results point to a robust season ahead, with the sport continuing to draw audiences on par with — and in some cases surpassing — major professional leagues.
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