Colorado Football smashes ESPN viewership records

The Buffs are one of the hottest on the block

CU Buffs

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The "Prime Effect" is drawing a large audience to college football with an overwhelming set of numbers to back it up.

ESPN's broadcast on Saturday night was one of the most-watched ever in history. At 2:15 a.m. ET on Sunday morning the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" was showing 8.23 million people tuned in to the Rocky Mountain Showdown across all platforms.

This coincides with the numbers FOX put up with the TCU and Nebraska games to open the season. If fact, the record-breaking numbers for CU and Coach Prime rival those from the NFL broadcasts. In three Monday Night Football games there has been a total audience of 21.8 million, which is less than the 25.3 million who've watched Colorado's wins this season.

CU announced a full season ticket sellout for the first time in over 100 years of history on Tuesday. This season was expected to be full of headlines, but this is an unprecedented one nobody could've predicted.

Published Sep 20, 2023

JOSH TOLLE

Josh Tolle is a writer covering college sports for On SI. Outside of storytelling, the multi-talented broadcaster has play-by-play experience at the professional and collegiate levels. In 2018, he began calling games for the National Women’s Soccer League. He has also called games for the United Soccer League, Concacaf, and the U.S. Open Cup. He has called hockey for the Premier Hockey Federation for the past three seasons and was the play-by-play voice for the Superior RoughRiders of the Western Hockey League. He has provided play-by-play for various other sports including football, basketball, baseball and volleyball events. Since 2015, Tolle has been the voice of Colorado School of Mines Athletics having called football, men's and women's basketball and soccer. He previously wrote for SB Nation.

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