Not surprisingly, Atlanta TV viewers watched the opening weekend of the college football season in impressive numbers.
According to Nielsen figures, the most watched game on TV in the Atlanta market last weekend was, by far, Saturday’s Georgia-North Carolina game, which posted a 16.8 rating here.
That means 16.8 percent of the homes in the market – or about 400,000 homes – watched the ESPN telecast on average.
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But Atlanta’s viewership of the college football openers extended far beyond the Bulldogs’ victory over the Tar Heels.
Sunday’s Notre Dame-Texas game on ABC posted a 10.3 rating in the Atlanta market, translating to an audience of about 246,000 homes.
Monday’s Florida State-Ole Miss game on ESPN garnered a 10.2 rating here, or about 243,000 Atlanta-area homes.
Ratings for telecasts of other high-profile season-opening games in the Atlanta market on Saturday included: Clemson-Auburn 9.3 rating (about 222,000 Atlanta homes), Alabama-USC 8.8 (210,000 homes), LSU-Wisconsin 8.7 (208,000 homes) and Oklahoma-Houston 8.0 (191,000 homes).
The Georgia Tech-Boston College game in Ireland, which started at 7:30 a.m. EDT Saturday, drew a 3.8 rating in the Atlanta market, about 91,000 homes.
Overall, college football dominated the attention of local sports fans last weekend. By comparison, the Braves’ game against the Phillies on Saturday posted a 0.4 rating here, representing an audience of about 9,500 homes in the Atlanta market.
