Ohio State vs Notre Dame Most-Watched NBC Regular Season Game in 30 Years

Coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes escaped South Bend on Saturday with a thrilling 17-14 win over coach Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The game averaged more than 10 million viewers, and was one of the most successful college football broadcasts that NBC has ever had.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Ohio State vs Notre Dame is the gift that keeps on giving. 

From Buckeyes' coach Ryan Day getting firmly locked into a feud with Lou Holtz of all people, to Notre Dame forgetting to put 11 men on the field for the game-deciding play, there are one million talking points that came out of Ohio State's 17-14 win in South Bend. 

Those one million talking points are dwarfed by the number of viewers who watched the game on television, though. That would be 10.5 million viewers, to be exact, making Ohio State vs Notre Dame the second-most watched regular season game on NBC ever, behind only Florida State vs Notre Dame in 1993's "Game of the Century." That Florida State vs Notre Dame matchup 30 years ago averaged 22 million viewers, according to Awful Announcing. 

NEWS: Notre Dame vs. Ohio State averaged 10.5M viewers on NBC🔥

That is 'on par' with the 2023 NBA Finals, the 2022 MLB World Series, and 4 times the viewership of the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup🤯

(h/t @RossDellenger) pic.twitter.com/fwafkbf0ei

— On3 (@On3sports) September 25, 2023

Given that this was a top-10 showdown between two of the most recognizable teams in the sport, it was bound to be a ratings hit. Throw in an iconic, last-second ending, and you get one of the most successful productions in NBC history. 

In a season filled with some ratings hits, Ohio State vs Notre Dame has emerged as the most-watched game of the 2023 college football season thus far. 

The top five for the 2023 season, and the average number of viewers brought in to each broadcast, are as follows:

1. Ohio State at Notre Dame (10.5 Million Viewers on Average)
2. Colorado at Oregon (10.03 Million Viewers on Average)
3. Colorado State at Colorado (9.3 Million Viewers on Average)
4. Florida State vs LSU (9.17 Million Viewers on Average)
5. Texas at Alabama (8.76 Million Viewers on Average)

Obviously, coach Deion Sanders and Colorado have been the breakout stars of the 2023 season, even with Buffaloes getting smashed 42-6 by the Oregon Ducks in Eugene last Saturday. 

No one should have been too shocked to see the Ohio State vs Notre Dame game approach record numbers. Any Big Ten fan would know that the Buckeyes are a ratings hit no matter who they play. You could put Ohio State up against a dead cat on a Saturday afternoon, and the broadcast might average 2 million viewers. 

Ohio State is on bye in Week 5, and its next two games against Maryland and Purdue will likely not rope in as many viewers as its Saturday performance in South Bend did. But come Oct. 21, the Buckeyes host coach James Franklin and the Penn State Nittany Lions, in a game that is sure to bring in massive viewership numbers for whichever television network broadcasts it. 

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