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College Football TV Ratings: Texas vs. Texas A&M sets Lone Star Showdown records

by: Alex Byington10 hours ago_AlexByington

The 2025 edition of the Lone Star Showdown rivalry between Texas and Texas A&M was one for the record books. It was part of a big weekend for ABC and ESPN, with ABC delivering the most-watched Rivalry Weekend since 2012 with an average viewership of nearly 8 million across the network’s six-game slate last Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, ESPN announced this year’s Lone Star Showdown matchup was the most-watched weekday college football game on record, with 13 million viewers and a peak of 14.3 million. The Longhorns dealt the previously undefeated Aggies their first loss of the season, 27-17, last Friday in Austin

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That surpassed the previous record of 12.5 million viewers set by the infamous 2010 Iron Bowl — otherwise known as “The Camback” — when eventual Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton led No. 2 Auburn to a 28-27 comeback victory after falling behind 24-0 to No. 11 Alabama. This year’s Iron Bowl, which ended in a 27-20 victory for the ninth-ranked Crimson Tide, received 11.3 million viewers with a peak of 13.1 million.

Both SEC rivalry games made the Top 5 most-watched games of this season across all networks, according to ESPN, with the Lone Star Showdown landing at No. 3 and the Iron Bowl at No. 5. In fact, this season’s SEC rivalry slate on ABC and ESPN delivered five of the Top Six most-watched games of Week 14, according to ESPN.

Ohio State vs. Michigan becomes most-watched game of 2025 season

In Week 14, Ohio State defeated Michigan in The Game for the first time in nearly 2,200 days. It also brought in huge TV ratings for FOX to cap off the college football regular season.

Saturday’s game averaged 18.424 million viewers, FOX announced, making it the most-watched game of the year. It tops the previous most-watched game, which saw Ohio State take down Texas in Week 1 in front of an average of 16.6 million people. It’s also FOX’s second-most-watched regular-season college football game behind the 2023 edition of “The Game.”

Michigan vs. Ohio State peaked at 20.5 million viewers between 3:30-3:45 p.m. ET, FOX said. It also marks a 49% increase from last season’s rivalry game. For reference, last year’s edition of “The Game” drew 12.4 million viewers as Michigan got its fourth straight win over Ohio State. That was a steep decrease from the 19.06 million who watched in 2023 and the 17.14 million viewers in 2022.

— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.