Texas' win over Alabama draws 8.8 million viewers across ESPN platforms, the largest regular season audience since 2015
The Texas Longhorns’ made a statement on Saturday versus the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, and a whole lot of people tuned in to see it.
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According to ESPN, 8.8 million people watched Texas defeat Alabama 34-24 on Saturday across the regular ESPN broadcast and the ESPN2 airing of Field Pass with the Pat McAfee Show. It was the most watched game of the week across all networks and the airing posted ESPN’s top numbers for a regular season game since 2015.
The peak amount of tune-ins was 10.7 million viewers between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. Central time. During that 15 minute period, the Longhorns held a 27-24 lead and embarked on a seven-play, 75-yard drive that culminated in a 39-yard touchdown pass from Quinn Ewers to Adonai Mitchell, forced Alabama to go three-and-out, and iced the game with several first downs to run down the final 7:14.
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McAfee’s supplementary airing on The Deuce drew 799,000 viewers, which was the most-watched ESPN alt-cast since the 2018 College Football Playoff national championship game. McAfee also hosted University of Texas Minister of Culture Matthew McConaughey on his broadcast, and had the notable Horn on-air for Xavier Worthy‘s touchdown reception.
The game took place during a carriage dispute between Disney and Charter Communications. Charter operates Spectrum, one of the largest cable providers in the country. As a result, a significant number of households did not have the Longhorn game on their television set, dampening the numbers down.
According to SportsMediaWatch.com, the top 10 games of the week were…
| Rank | Game | Timeslot | Network | Rating | Viewers |
| 1 | Texas at Alabama | 6 p.m. | ESPN/ESPN2 | 4.5 | 8.76M |
| 2 | Nebraska at Colorado | 11 a.m. | FOX | 4.8 | 8.73M |
| 3 | Texas A&M at Miami | 4:19 p.m. | ABC | 2.2 | 4.02M |
| 4 | Iowa at Iowa State | 2:30 p.m. | FOX | 1.8 | 3.38M |
| 5 | UNLV at Michigan | 2:30 p.m. | CBS | 1.5 | 2.97M |
| 6 | Notre Dame at North Carolina State | 11 a.m. | ABC | 1.7 | 2.93M |
| 7 | Oregon at Texas Tech | 6 p.m. | FOX | 1.3 | 2.55M |
| 8 | Wisconsin at Washington State | 6:30 p.m. | ABC | 1.3 | 2.28M |
| 9 | Auburn at California | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN | 1.3 | 2.23M |
| 10 | Stanford at Southern Cal | 9:30 p.m. | FOX | 0.9 | 1.75M |
Texas takes on Wyoming on Saturday at 7 p.m. on Longhorn Network.
