A common refrain for Notre Dame football haters is that nobody actually cares about it. As far as they’re concerned, the Irish are overrated, overloved and don’t deserve anything as long as they don’t join a conference.
The reality though is that the Irish will attract a large amount of viewers every week, especially if they’re on in prime time. ESPN recognized this and wisely placed the Irish’s season opener at Texas A&M in the prime-time slot on ABC.
The viewers saw the Irish win, but ESPN and ABC saw the ratings go through the roof and the decision to place the game where it did pay off:
Saturday, Aug. 31 is now in the history books as ABC's second-most-watched Kickoff Saturday on record 🤩@NDFootball 🆚 @AggieFootball, @ClemsonFB 🆚 @GeorgiaFootball, and @CanesFootball 🆚 @GatorsFB combined to score 7.6M avg viewers Saturday pic.twitter.com/VZepHYuta4
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 1, 2024
What’s more, the only recent game that could even approach ABC’s Saturday night game as far as ratings was when the Irish faced Ohio State in 2022. So the next time you hear someone say no one really cares about the Irish, just show them these ratings.
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