UGA Football Draws Big Crowd on TV vs. Herd | 93rd Time Kirby's Dawgs Eclipse 1 Million
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ATHENS - UGA Football’s lopsided win over Marshall was watched by more than a million viewers on Saturday - the 93rd game Georgia has hit the million-viewer mark under Kirby Smart since 2016.
The No. 4 Dawgs’ season-opening 45-7 win over Marshall drew 1.7 million viewers - going head-to-head with Florida State’s stunning upset of Alabama which drew 10.7 million viewers on ABC. As expected the Texas-Ohio State game won the weekend with over 16.6 million viewers.
ESPN confirmed the UGA-Marshall viewership number to Dawg Post Wednesday. The game is the second-highest ever game in terms of viewership for a non-power-five matchup in Georgia’s history (2017 Appalachian State).
This week the Bulldogs are on SEC Network+, which is a streaming-exclusive game. Each SEC school is mandated to have at least one SEC Network+ game a season.
Disney said that its networks had three games with over 10 million viewers over the weekend (Bama-FSU, LSU-Clemson and Notre Dame-Miami). Media companies are expected to see higher viewership numbers in 2025 due to an adjustment by Neilson in the way that company gathers data to compile the final viewership number for a given broadcast.
The SEC continues to power Disney’s firm grasp on the top of college football broadcasting. Bama-FSU (10.7), LSU-Clemson (10.4M), South Carolina-Virginia Tech (5.4M) and Tennessee-Syracuse (2.6M). Disney said Labor Day was the best opening weekend on record (since 1996).
UGA gathering more eyeballs on cable (ESPN) than other power-four programs did on broadcast television over the first to weeks of the season speaks to the Bulldogs’ prowess on television.
Georgia’s first real spotlight game comes next Saturday at Tennessee. The Bulldogs and Vols have been a juggernaut of late with massive audiences in 2004 (9.9M), 2023 (5.7M) and 2022 (13.1M).
