LSU helps ESPN and ABC set viewership records in Week 1

Week 1 of the 2025 college football season gave fans a lot to look forward to. It was a highly-anticipated weekend for many reasons. Not only was college football returning after a long offseason, but three top-10 matchups were on the Week 1 schedule, including LSU at Clemson. Furthermore, this past Saturday marked the final College GameDay broadcast for legendary analyst Lee Corso after 38 years on the show.

The hunger for college football's return yielded great results for ESPN and ABC. Backed by a trio of top-10 matchups, ABC had its best opening weekend on record in terms of college football viewership. The LSU vs Clemson matchup was one of three Week 1 college football games to exceed 10 million viewers. Not surprisingly, the other two were top-10 matchups featuring Notre Dame vs Miami on Sunday night and Alabama at Florida State on Saturday afternoon.

Furthermore, ESPN's College GameDay also had a record-setting day. The fan-favorite program set a record with four million viewers, which made Saturday's broadcast the most-watched GameDay show on record, peaking at 5.7 million viewers. Presumably, the peak came during Corso's final segment just minutes before the first slate of games were set to kick-off.

Earlier in the show, LSU fans were smiling when Corso picked the LSU Tigers to win the National Championship this season. The Tigers made him proud on Saturday night with their impressive 17-10 win at No. 4 Clemson thanks to a dominating defensive effort.

With all of the big changes college football has gone through in recent seasons, Week 1's viewership numbers show that the hunger and excitement from fans is still there. The sport is still drawing a ton of attention across the country, and after an impressive showing this past weekend, could be in line for more big viewership numbers throughout the season.