Ohio State’s 14–7 victory over Texas on Saturday was the most-watched Week 1 college football game on record, as Fox drew 16.62 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings.
The game—which peaked with 18.57 million viewers just after 3 p.m. ET—marked Fox’s third-largest regular-season college football TV audience of all time. The final rating, nearly identical to what last year’s Georgia–Texas SEC championship game drew, is higher than any 2024 regular-season game, and all but five College Football Playoff broadcasts last season.
Beyond the intrigue of the then-No. 1–ranked Longhorns visiting the defending national champion Buckeyes, Fox may have benefited from the controversy around Barstool founder Dave Portnoy, who made his debut on the network’s pregame show, Big Noon Kickoff. Portnoy confirmed that Ohio State banned him from entering the stadium, which Front Office Sports first reported last week.
Saturday was also the final appearance of legendary analyst Lee Corso on ESPN’s College GameDay, which also broadcast live from Columbus. That pregame show drew a record 3.5 million viewers, per preliminary ratings.
Fox Sports executive Michael Mulvihill posted on social media that this past weekend of games across all networks “is easily the most-watched CFB Week 1 ever.” Mulvihill predicted total viewing will surpass 20 billion minutes, well above the previous high of 14.5 billion in 2023.
