The Week 7 edition of College Gameday on Saturday featured actress Kaitlin Olson as the guest picker, who doesn’t particularly have all that much of a tie to the sports world whatsoever. But what she does happen to have is a tie to ABC due to her recently released show High Potential, which she made sure to plug during her Gameday appearance.
When the cast made picks on the game near the end of the show, Olson seized an opportunity to plug High Potential when breaking down the Big 12 matchup between the Colorado Buffaloes and the Kansas State Wildcats.
“Yeah, I don’t bet against primetime,” said Olson before picking the Colorado Buffaloes coached by “Primetime” Deion Sanders. Speaking of primetime, my new show High Potential is on primetime ABC on Tuesday’s at 10. Colorado for me.”
Great job by @KaitlinOlson as @CollegeGameDay‘s guest picker. The @uoregon alum nailed the assignment – and the @ABC_Publicity promo for #HighPotential. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/jXBjJRowiU
— bill hofheimer (@bhofheimer_espn) October 12, 2024
This was just one of numerous mentions to High Potential, which certainly makes sense for ABC, the parent company of ESPN, when you consider how well-received the show has been thus far.
High Potential has delivered impressive ratings thus far, with 11.49 million total viewers across all platforms tuning into the show in its first three days. This makes the show the network’s highest-rated drama premiere among the 18-49 year-old demographic in just under four years.
There are of course other reasons that Olson was chosen to be on College Gameday. She did notably graduate from the University of Oregon and obviously brings a comedic element to the show that plenty of viewers may appreciate.
But with that being said, her input when it came to the slate of college football games this week was certainly limited. And perhaps her most notable moment did include some controversy when she mentioned losing her virginity while at Oregon.
“Guys, this is my college! That’s right, this is my place,” said Olson before picking Oregon to beat Ohio State. “I love it here. I went to college here, my family went to college here. I lost my virginity here. My fake ID was taken away. Oregon Ducks all the way!”
Kaitlin Olson on ESPN’s College Gameday: “Guys, this is my college! That’s right, this is my place. I love it here. I went to college here, my family went to college here. I lost my virginity here. My fake ID was taken away. Oregon Ducks all the way! pic.twitter.com/gcbcUY4bmz
— SportsClips (@SportsClip4U) October 12, 2024
Despite a bit of a lack of filter from Olson, her presence on College Gameday was seemingly overwhelmingly positive for ABC considering all of the success that High Potential has shown.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.