12 Million Watch UGA Football-Bama | Dawgs the Most-Watched Program in College Football
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ATHENS - More than 12 million people watched Kirby Smart’s UGA Football and Alabama’s wild game Saturday night on ABC. The No. 4 Tide beat No. 2 UGA 41-34 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The game between the two is the most-watched game of the football season so far. It is also the most-watched regular season SEC game in two years - since No. 1 UGA beat No. 1 Tennesee in 2022 (13,060,000).
The 2024 edition of UGA-Bama is the latest in the series that had at least ten million viewers. Only twice in the last 15 years - 2015 and 2020 - have games between the two SEC schools had fewer than ten million viewers.
Disney said in a press release that UGA-Bama was the most-streamed regular-season game ever on ESPN, and the most-watched regular season primetime game on any network since 2017.
The game cements Georgia as the most-watched program in college football for 2024 so far (26.18 million total viewers so far). The Bulldogs still have marquee games against Texas, Tennessee and Ole Miss as well as traditional rivalry games against Auburn, Georgia Tech and the Gators remaining in what is the most-difficult regular season schedule in UGA history.
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The TV power of the Bama-UGA matchup isn't surprising. The two programs are two of the three biggest draws in college football since 2012. Georgia-Bama is the most-watched series (146.1 million total viewers) in college football in terms of total number of viewers in the last 12 years - beating out Ohio State-Michigan even though Bama and Georgia don't play each year. OSU-Michigan should take over that spot later this year. Both matchups have the possiblity to be played two more times, which has not been the case in the past due to changes in the determination of the Big Ten and SEC Championships as well as the expansion of the College Football Playoff.
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Georgia is the most-watched college football team so far this season. The Bulldogs have played in three games with audiences over 6 million viewers. So far in 2024 only UGA, USC and Michigan have had at least two games with over six million viewers.
Georgia has always been a national brand in football, but Kirby Smart's success over the last eight years has super charged the program. The Bulldogs have also benefited from Disney's acquisition of rights to the SEC's best games, which started in 2024. ABC triple headers - like last week's that culminated with UGA-UA, and this week's which features UGA-Auburn - have been more successful in terms of average viewer than what CBS's one game a week offered in the past.