Saturday Final Nationals: Florida State-Alabama on ABC Sets All-Time College Football Opening Weekend Game Viewer Record

Saturday night television was given a solid jolt with the return of college football as ABC dominated the evening with its “Saturday Night Football” presentation of the Florida State Seminoles versus the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Including streaming viewership, Alabama’s victory over Florida State delivered a total live audience of 12.56 million viewers, now the most-watched kickoff weekend game ever across all networks — ESPN’s and competitors – surpassing the 11.139 million viewers of Notre Dame at Texas game on ABC from Sep. 4, 2016. It also represented a 56 percent increase from the “Saturday Night Football” season opener of one year ago, USC vs. Alabama (Sep. 3, 2016).

In addition to setting new kickoff weekend records, the total live audience for Alabama’s victory is a top 5 regular season college football audience on ABC since 2006.

Saturday night’s TV audience peaked at 14.118 million viewers (9 – 9:30 p.m.).

(Source: ESPN)

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* AFF = Number of affiliates (stations) airing the program
* CVG = percent of coverage in U.S.
	Saturday, September 2, 2017
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			7.0/15	12625	3.1/19	4.0/18	4.5/17
8:00	Saturday Night Football Pre-Game (s)			4.2/9	7400	1.6/11	2.0/11	2.4/10
8:07	Saturday Night Football Florida State vs. Alabama (thru 11:45)	260	92	6.9/15	12335	3.2/19	3.9/18	4.4/17
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.0/2	1469	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.6’e/1
8:00	Candy Crush (s)	253	92	0.8/2	1278	0.2/1	0.2/1	0.3/1
9:00	Candy Crush (s)	254	92	0.8/2	1169	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.3/1
10:00	48 Hours Presents (r)	254	92	1.3/3	1961	0.1/1	0.3/1	0.4/1
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.8/4	2793	0.2/1	0.5/2	0.6/2
8:00	America’s Got Talent (rs)	242	92	1.7/3	2614	0.2/2	0.4/2	0.6/2
10:00	Dateline Mystery	245	92	2.1/4	3152	0.2/1	0.5/2	0.7/3
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.0/2	1651	0.3/2	0.4/2	0.5/2
7:36	College Football Purdue vs. Louisville (thru 11:22)	255	92	1.1/2	1792	0.4/2	0.5/2	0.6/2
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			0.4/1	707	0.1/1	0.2/1	0.3/1
7:00	Crónicas de Sábado			0.5/1	843	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.3/1
8:00	Festival de Vina del Mar 2017 (s)			0.4/1	734	0.2/1	0.2-1	0.3/1
10:00	Como Dice El Dicho			0.4/1	654	0.1/1	0.2/1	0.2/1
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			0.2/0	374	0.1/1	0.1/1	0.2/1
7:00	Cine Caballero a la Medida (1953)			0.3/1	477	0.1/1	0.2/1	0.2/1
9:00	Fútbol de la MLS FC Dallas vs. New York Red Bulls (s) (thru 11:05 p.m.)			0.1/0	291	0.1/1	0.1/1	0.1/0
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average (preliminary)			0.5/1	868	0.3/2	0.3/1	0.4/1
8:00	Cine Four Brothers (2005) (preliminary)			0.4/1	788	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.3/1
9:00	Cine The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) (preliminary)			0.5/1	884	0.3/2	0.3/1
10:00	Cine The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) (preliminary)			0.5/1	932	0.3/2	0.4/2	0.4/1

Note: All of this date’s Telemundo data are based on preliminary figures.

Sub-Demo Breakdowns – Saturday 9/02/17

Live+3 Days Ratings – Saturday 9/02/17

For the entire week of August 28-September 3, 2017 in Total Day (8 p.m. to 5:59 a.m.), Adult Swim is down 2 percent in viewership (0.806 million vs. 0.821 million) and down 1 percent among Adults 18-49 (502,000 vs. 508,000) from one week earlier; the network is also down 17 percent in viewership (0.806 million vs. 0.969 million) and down 10 percent among Adults 18-49 (502,000 vs. 559,000) from the same week one year ago (August 29-September 4, 2016). (https://programmingins.wpengine.com/?p=19081)

	PROGRAM	HH	Viewers (000)	A1849 rating	A1849 (000)
8:00	Dragon Ball Super (r)	0.30	511	0.18	229
8:30	Dragon Ball Super (r)	0.28	468	0.18	229
9:00	Rick & Morty (r)	0.37	632	0.27	345
9:30	Rick & Morty (r)	0.47	746	0.33	431
10:00	Family Guy (r)	0.62	991	0.45	576
10:30	Family Guy (r)	0.66	1033	0.50	646

TOONAMI – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

	PROGRAM	Viewers (000)	A1849 rating	A1849 (000)
11:00	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (r)	838	0.40	521
11:30	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (r)	718	0.36	469
12:00a	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (r)	709	0.35	453
12:30a	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (r)	700	0.34	444
1:00a	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (r)	613	0.31	399
1:30a	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (r)	578	0.29	374
2:00a	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (r)	521	0.26	333
2:30a	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (r)	481	0.24	307
3:00a	Attack on Titan (r)	455	0.22	287
3:30a	Samurai Jack (r)	422	0.21	277

	PROGRAM	Viewers (000)	A1849 rating	A1849 (000)
4:00a	Rick & Morty (r)	420	0.22	284
4:30a	Rick & Morty (r)	437	0.22	286
5:00a	King of the Hill (r)	419	0.21	270
5:30a	King of the Hill (r)	408	0.20	257

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research

Cable Rankings – Saturday 9/02/17
What follows are the top 100 most-watched shows in prime time on cable (by order of network) for Saturday, September 2:

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research