FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 4th, 2018

NOTRE DAME-MICHIGAN ON NBC IS NETWORK’S MOST-WATCHED NOTRE DAME GAME IN 13 YEARS

Notre Dame-Michigan Draws Largest Audience for ND on NBC Since “Bush Push” Game vs. USC in 2005, With Total Audience Delivery Average of 7.179 Million Viewers

Fighting Irish Victory Ranks #1 in Viewership Among Notre Dame Primetime Games & Most-Watched ND Season Opener on NBC in 24 Years

NBC Sports Digital Sets Notre Dame Streaming Records

STAMFORD, Conn. – September 4, 2018 – NBC Sports’ coverage of Saturday’s primetime game featuring the No. 12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 14 Michigan Wolverines on NBC, which the Fighting Irish won by a score of 24-17, produced a Total Audience Delivery average of 7.179 million viewers and set numerous viewership milestones, according to Fast National Data provided by Nielsen and Adobe Analytics:

 

  • The game is the most-watched Notre Dame Football on NBC broadcast in 13 years, since the iconic “Bush Push” game vs. USC (10/15/05; 10.072 million);

 

  • NBC’s most-watched primetime Notre Dame game on record;

 

  • NBC’s most-watched Notre Dame season opener in 24 years, and the third most-watched season opener on record, behind 1994 and 1992, both of which were Notre Dame-Michigan games.

 

In addition, NBC won the night in primetime and was No. 1 in the advertiser-coveted Adult 18-49 demographic. Viewership peaked in the 10:45-11 p.m. ET quarter hour with a 4.54 HH rating and nearly 8 million viewers (7.945 million) as the Fighting Irish held off the Wolverines’ comeback attempt. The game delivered a 4.01 HH rating.

Viewership of Saturday night’s game was up 73% vs. last year’s first primetime Notre Dame game vs. Georgia on NBC (9/9/17; 4.144 million), and up 52% vs. the last Notre Dame-Michigan game on NBC in 2014 (9/6/14; 4.667 million).

Digitally, Notre Dame-Michigan ranks as NBC Sports’ most live-streamed Notre Dame game on record, delivering an average minute audience (AMA) of 88,500 viewers, 19.7 million live minutes, and 296,000 uniques. Those metrics are up 69% in AMA (52,300 viewers), 61% in live minutes (12.2 million), and 47% in uniques (201,000) vs. last year’s primetime Georgia game.

The 28th season of Notre Dame Football on NBC continues next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET when the Fighting Irish host the Ball State Cardinals.

–NBC SPORTS–