The Michigan Wolverines (No. 2 in the preseason AP Poll) took down East Carolina 30-3 Saturday, and they did so in front of a whole lot of viewers. The Peacock-exclusive game, called by Mike Tirico and Chris Simms, is the most streamed college football game in NBC Sports’ history
On Saturday night, NBC kicked off its new B1G Saturday Night franchise with Penn State (No. 7 in the preseason AP Poll_ playing host to West Virginia. According to Monday’s release, the Nittany Lions 23-point win over West Virginia peaked at 4.4 million viewers from 8:45-9 p.m. ET. The Saturday night opener is the most-watched college football game featuring only one ranked team (Penn State) since 2015.
Penn State’s 38-15 blowout win over the Mountaineers averaged 3.7 million viewers over all platforms. That’s also good for NBC’s most-watched Labor Day Saturday primetime show since 2015. That trails only No. 12-ranked Notre Dame’s 7-point victory over No. 14 Michigan in 2018, which averaged 7.2 million viewers.
Speaking of Notre Dame, Week 0 saw the Fighting Irish’s blowout win over Navy in Ireland averaged 3.81 million viewers over all platforms, with 3.563 million of those coming on NBC proper. That’s also good for NBC’s most-watched Notre Dame game since the team’s loss to Cincinnati in October 2021.
Additionally, as part of NBC Sports’ first-ever college football tripleheader, Notre Dame (No. 13 in the preseason poll) defeated Tennessee State 56-3 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
NBC will be right back at it in Week 2 when Penn State hosts Delaware exclusively on Peacock at noon ET, and Maryland hosts Charlotte at 7:30 p.m. There won’t be another tripleheader this weekend, as Notre Dame’s game this Saturday at N.C. State will air on ABC.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.