Tennessee football’s thrilling 44-41 overtime loss against Georgia was one of the top games of the first three weeks of the college football season. The SEC showdown captivated viewers according to ESPN’s numbers. According to ESPN PR, the matchup averaged 12.6 million viewers and peaked at 15.9 million viewers.
It was ABC/ESPN’s most watched game in its 3:30 p.m. ET afternoon window since a 2006 showdown between Purdue and Southern Cal. That stat can be a bit misleading because ESPN/ABC’s afternoon games have often not been great as it’s been up against the CBS SEC Game of the Week for most of the last 25 years.
But perhaps the more impressive stat is that it was the fourth most watched ABC regular-season college football game of the last decade. The Tennessee-Georgia viewership sailed past other top ESPN/ABC games in week three, nearly doubling the viewership of Florida-LSU (7.6 million) and doubling Clemson-Georgia Tech (4.8 million) and Alabama-Wisconsin (4.5 million).
The thrilling rivalry matchup is already ABC’s fourth game that has exceeded 10 million viewers this season. That matches the number of ABC broadcasts that exceeded 10 million viewers a season ago when the network did have exclusive SEC broadcasting rights.
There was an abundance of hype around the SEC matchup with ESPN’s College Gameday coming to town and its top broadcasting crew of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe calling the game.
More From RTI: Tennessee Football Coach Reveals Message to Defense After Georgia Game
Tennessee’s offense came out on fire, jumping out to a 21-7 lead while scoring touchdowns on its first three drives of the game. Georgia rebounded and kept Tennessee from crossing midfield on five straight drives while taking control of the game with a 27-21 lead.
But unlike past meetings in the series, the Vols found offensive answers. Back-to-back touchdown drives and a fumble turned into a field goal gave Tennessee a 38-30 lead midway through the fourth quarter. Tennessee was unable to close the game out, with Georgia scoring a touchdown on fourth down and converting a two-point conversion to tie the game.
Tennessee drove into field goal range on the final drive of regulation before Max Gilbert’s 43-yard go-ahead field goal drifted wide right. Georgia went on to win in the first overtime 44-41.
The Vols are looking to bounce back this week when they host UAB at Neyland Stadium. Kickoff is at 12:45 p.m. ET with Taylor Zarzour, Matt Stinchcomb and Alyssa Lang on the call for the SEC Network
