Notre Dame-Wisconsin was a HUGE TV draw ....

I was surprised that Notre Dame's Sunday Night game dominated TV ratings for week one. It wasn't quite as high as the Miami game last year, which isn't a surprise since that was two better teams, but it was by far the most viewed game of week one. I get it was a game played against only one other game, but it was double what the Monday night game with SMU-FSU drew, and it blew away the Ole Miss/Louisville game.

ND-Wis. (NBC): 8.1M
LSU-Clemson (ABC): 5.8M
Wash-Wash St (NBC): 5.1M
Oregon-Boise St (CBS): 4.8M
Lou-Ole Miss (ABC): 4.7M
Baylor-Auburn (ABC): 4.2M
Mich-WMU (NBC): 4.1M
FSU-SMU (ESPN): 4.1M

Some other notes:

*** Peaked at 9.7 million viewers in the second quarter

*** Total viewership ranks 3rd best ND game on NBC since the 2005 USC game, trailing only 2023 Ohio State and 2020 Clemson.

*** Biggest audience for a Notre Dame home game against an unranked opponents

*** Was Peacock's most simulstreamed game ever

*** Was up 31% over the Texas A&M game from last year

*** It was a very good weekend for NBC, who had 2 of the 3 most viewed games of the weekend and 3 of the top seven.