The theme here this week has been college football TV ratings and now it’s time to look at Notre Dame.. We’ve gone over the TV ratings for every SEC team as well as the most & least watched games of the 2017 college football season. Now it’s time to take a look at the TV ratings for one of the biggest brands in college football. It’s a team with a national (and possibly even international) fan base, over 125 years of history and their own exclusive TV rights contract with NBC.
Notre Dame 2012
9/8/12 – vs. Purdue – NBC – 2,800,000
9/15/12 – @ Michigan State – ABC – 5,000,000
9/22/12 – vs. Michigan – NBC – 6,400,000
10/6/12 – vs. Miami* – NBC – 3,700,000
10/13/12 – vs. Stanford – NBC – 5,200,000
10/20/12 – vs. BYU – NBC – 3,700,000
10/27/12 – @ Oklahoma – ABC – 8,600,000
11/3/12 – vs. Pitt – NBC – 6,000,000
11/10/12 – @ Boston College – ABC – 5,800,000
11/24/12 – @ USC – ABC – 16,100,000
1/7/13 – vs. Alabama* – ESPN – 26,400,000
Total Viewership: 89,700,000
Average Viewership: 8,154,546
Note: Despite airing on over the air networks (CBS and NBC respectively) the numbers for the games against Navy and Wake Forest are nowhere to be found.
Notre Dame 2013
8/31/13 – vs. Temple – NBC – 2,500,000
9/7/13 – @ #17 Michigan – ESPN – 8,650,000
9/14/13 – @ Purdue – ABC – 4,790,000
9/21/13 – vs. Michigan State – NBC – 4,790,000
9/28/13 – vs. Oklahoma – NBC – 3,890,000
10/5/13 – vs. Arizona State* – NBC – 3,680,000
10/19/13 – vs. USC – NBC – 3,460,000
11/2/13 – vs. Navy – NBC – 2,560,000
11/9/13 – @ Pitt – ABC – 3,030,000
11/23/13 – vs. BYU – NBC – 2,290,000
11/30/13 – @ Stanford – FOX – 3,330,000
12/28/13 – vs. Rutgers* – ESPN – 4,840,000
Total Viewership: 47,813,000
Average Viewership: 3,984,417
Note: The game against Air Force aired on CBSSN which is not tracked by Nielsen and a number is therefore unavailable.
Notre Dame 2014
8/30/14 – vs. Rice – NBC – 2,100,000
9/6/14 – vs. Michigan – NBC – 4,630,000
9/13/14 – vs. Purdue* – NBC – 3,130,000
9/27/14 – vs. Syracuse* – ABC – 4,050,000
10/4/14 – vs. Stanford – NBC – 3,400,000
10/11/14 – vs. North Carolina – NBC – 3,190,000
10/18/14 – @ Florida State – ABC – 13,250,000
11/1/14 – vs. Navy* – CBS – 3,890,000
11/8/14 – @ Arizona State – ABC – 4,670,000
11/15/14 – vs. Northwestern – NBC – 2,960,000
11/22/14 – vs. Louisville – NBC – 3,090,000
11/29/14 – @ USC – FOX – 2,000,000
12/30/14 – vs. LSU* – ESPN – 5,320,000
Total Viewership: 55,680,000
Average Viewership: 4,283,077
Notre Dame 2015
9/5/15 – vs. Texas – NBC – 4,060,000
9/12/15 – @ Virginia – ABC – 5,744,000
9/19/15 – vs. Georgia Tech – NBC – 3,700,000
9/26/15 – vs. UMass – NBC – 1,964,000
10/3/15 – @ Clemson – ABC – 7,647,000
10/10/15 – vs. Navy – NBC – 2,639,000
10/17/15 – vs. USC – NBC – 3,958,000
10/31/15 – @ Temple – ABC – 5,977,000
11/7/15 – @ Pitt – ABC – 3,844,000
11/14/15 – vs. Wake Forest – NBC – 1,942,000
11/21/15 – vs. Boston College* – NBCSN – 1,986,000
11/28/15 – @ Stanford – FOX – 7,319,000
1/1/16 – vs. Ohio State* – ESPN – 9,800,000
Total Viewership: 60,580,000
Average Viewership: 4,660,000
Notre Dame 2016
9/4/16 – @ Texas – ABC – 10,945,000
9/10/16 – vs. Nevada – NBC – 2,451,000
9/17/16 – vs. Michigan State – NBC – 4,987,000
9/24/16 – vs. Duke – NBC – 2,627,000
10/1/16 – vs. Syracuse* – ESPN – 2,104,000
10/8/16 – @ NC State – ABC – 3,720,000
10/15/16 – vs. Stanford – NBC – 2,870,000
10/29/16 – vs. Miami – NBC – 2,634,000
11/5/16 – vs. Navy* – CBS – 2,420,000
11/12/16 – vs. Army* – NBC – 1,515,000
11/19/16 – vs. Virginia Tech – NBC – 2,449,000
11/26/16 – @ USC – ABC – 5,695,000
Total Viewership: 44,397,000
Average Viewership: 3,699,750
Notre Dame 2017
9/2/17 – vs. Temple – NBC – 1,580,000
9/9/17 – vs. Georgia – NBC – 4,088,000
9/16/17 – @ Boston College – ESPN – 1,779,000
9/23/17 – @ Michigan State – FOX – 3,456,000
9/30/17 – vs. Miami (OH) – NBCSN – 798,000
10/7/17 – @ North Carolina – ABC – 2,505,000
10/21/17 – vs. USC – NBC – 2,988,000
10/28/17 – vs. NC State – NBC – 2,625,000
11/4/17 – vs. Wake Forest – NBC – 1,903,000
11/11/17 – @ Miami (FL) – ABC – 6,727,000
11/18/17 – vs. Navy – NBC – 3,203,000
11/25/17 – @ Stanford – ABC – 5,259,000
1/1/18 – vs. LSU* – ABC – 8,731,000
Total Viewership: 45,642,000
Average Viewership: 3,510,923
Unsurprisingly, the 2012 season is the most-watched Notre Dame season of the bunch for the Irish as they went undefeated and made it to the national championship game. Also unsurprisingly, 2013 saw a big dropoff as the Irish went from 12-1 to 9-4 and a berth in the Pinstripe Bowl.
But after 2013 there were back to back years of ratings boosts going from 3,984,417 in 2013 to 4,283,077 in 2014 and then to 4,660,000 in 2015. But then came the dreadful 4-8 campaign of 2016 and after a massive audience for the season opener against Texas ratings fell drastically. Even from 2016 to 2017 ratings fell again as many fans were checked out on the team.
One thing about the 2017 season however is that a few games that Notre Dame played were played at the same time as a number of other marquee games, thus impacting the ratings (the games against Georgia and USC come to mind in this scenario). But after a 10-3 season last year, interest should be back to high levels and a season opener against Michigan will certainly move the needle.
*denotes game played at neutral site
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