Colorado-Nebraska draws 2nd-best viewership of Week 2 with 8.73 million viewers
Going into Week 2, there were few games with more excitement surrounding them than the Colorado–Nebraska game. Fans wanted to know just how serious the Buffaloes were going to be under Deion Sanders and if Matt Rhule and the Cornhuskers could get their first win.
The game was Fox’s Big Noon Kick for the week and that excitement for the game was seen in the viewership numbers for the game. It had the second best viewership of the week, drawing 8.73 million viewers.
That is, notably, the most viewed Pac-12 game on Fox ever, per Front Office Sports. It also comes in a year when the Pac-12 is incredibly deep despite 10 of the 12 teams in the conference set to leave for new conferences in the coming seasons.
The only game that drew better viewership was the top-25 matchup in Tuscaloosa between Texas and Alabama. That game was the most watched since 2015, drawing 8.8 million viewers.
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Despite drawing slightly fewer viewers than the Alabama-Texas game, Colorado and Nebraska earned a higher rating for the game. It had a 4.8 rating compared to a 4.5 rating. Notably, these two games didn’t share a time slot, and instead clearly dominated their own time slots. Colorado and Nebraska kicked at noon while Texas and Alabama were ESPN’s primetime game for the week.
The next most viewed game was the Texas A&M–Miami game. However, that drew less than half the viewers that Colorado-Nebraska did, with 4.02 million viewers and a 2.2 rating.
On the East Coast, there were several weather delays that likely pushed fans to watch a game like Colorado-Nebraska, which didn’t deal with any such delay. However, more fans were likely tuning in to judge Deion Sanders and Colorado for themselves.
The Buffaloes have grabbed the college football world by storm. This past offseason, Sanders made it clear that he was going to flip the roster in the transfer portal and said he expected to win. Most experts agreed it would take time. Then, Colorado upset TCU in Week 1 and grabbed everyone’s attention.
The first half of the game was a defensive struggle between the two teams. However, turnovers hampered Nebraska and gave Colorado several short fields and momentum. In the end, it was a blowout win for the Buffaloes and their fans stormed the field to celebrate the second win of the season after an awful 1-11 campaign in 2022.
In the latest AP Poll, Colorado rose to 18th in the rankings with a 2-0 record. Nebraska, meanwhile, fell to 0-2 on the season.
Despite these incredible numbers, neither the Colorado-Nebraska nor the Alabama-Texas games were the most watched this season. Instead, that honor goes to the Florida State–LSU game in Week 1, which drew 9.17 million viewers.
Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff will return to Colorado this weekend, while ESPN also sends College GameDay to Boulder for what should be another intriguing game against rival Colorado State.
