The numbers are quite staggering and the fact that it beat all programs on broadcast and on cable shows people were hungry for football on Labor Day. ESPN tells us that the Boise State-Virginia State game which ended up being a thriller, became the second most watched college football on the network and the most watched game on the ESPN3.com broadband service.
It’s quite impressive. Here’s the press release.
Boise State vs. Virginia Tech: ESPN and ESPN3.com’s Most-Viewed College Football Game
ESPN’s Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 6) prime-time telecast of Boise State defeating Virginia Tech 33-30 averaged 7,252,000 households, making it the network’s most-viewed college football game – covering regular-season and bowl games – in households. With 9,888,000 viewers (people 2+), the telecast ranks as the second most-viewed college football game among total viewers (trailing only ESPN’s coverage of USC at Ohio State in 2009 which averaged 10,586,000 viewers). The Labor Day matchup averaged a 7.3 rating (equaling the average for USC at Ohio State) and stands as the highest rating for a college football game in 16 years (Florida State at Miami averaged a 7.7 on October 8, 1994). Additional highlights include:
- The telecast was the most-viewed program of the day across all networks — cable and broadcast — among households, total viewers, and all key male and people demographics. In addition, ESPN was the No. 1 network of the night among households, total viewers, and all key male and people demographics.
- The matchup is the third most-viewed ad-supported cable telecast across all networks in 2010 among households behind ESPN’s Monday Night Football (Minnesota at Chicago) and the NFL Pro Bowl coverage. It is also the fifth most-viewed ad-supported cable telecast in 2010 among total viewers.
- The game stands as ESPN’s most-viewed and highest-rated non-Saturday college football telecast since at least 1990 (when ESPN began tracking audiences).
- The telecast was the most-viewed and highest-rated college football game of the five-day opening weekend schedule across all networks (cable or broadcast).
ESPN3.com
With more than 230,000 unique viewers, the game was also the most-watched college football game ever on ESPN3.com, ESPN’s 24/7 broadband network. Through the opening weekend from Thursday through Monday, college football games on ESPN3.com reached more than 1 million unique viewers, equaling nearly 69 million total minutes.
Linkage is coming up.
