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Wisconsin-Notre Dame on NBC & Peacock is NBC Sports’ Third-Most Watched Notre Dame Football Game Since 2005, Averaging 8.1 Million Viewers

Audience for Fighting Irish victory on Sunday night peaked at 9.7 million viewers in second quarter, and the game is the most-streamed Notre Dame game on NBC simulcast ever.

NBC Sports

September 14, 2026

The Wisconsin-Notre Dame “Shamrock Series” game from Lambeau Field this past Sunday night is NBC Sports’ third-most watched Notre Dame Football game since 2005, averaging 8.1 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, based on official Nielsen Big Data + Panel and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

The audience for the No. 4 Fighting Irish’s 41-13 victory peaked at 9.7 million viewers in the second quarter (9:15-9:30 p.m. ET) as Notre Dame led 13-10. Viewership for the full game (7:43-11:02 p.m. ET) ranks third among Notre Dame Football games on NBC since 2005’s “Bush Push” game vs. USC, trailing a pair of thrillers (10.6 million viewers for No. 6 Ohio State at No. 9 Notre Dame in 2023, and 10.4 million for No. 1 Clemson and No. 3 Notre Dame double OT matchup in 2020). Additionally, Wisconsin-Notre Dame was the most-watched college football game of the weekend across all networks (7.4 million linear viewers; 683,000 streaming).

Additional viewership highlights for NBC Sports’ Week 1 college football games:

  • The Badgers-Fighting Irish audience is NBC Sports’ largest ever for a Notre Dame Football game where the opponent was unranked.
  • Led by Peacock, Wisconsin-Notre Dame is NBC Sports’ most simulstreamed Notre Dame Football game ever, with an Average Minute Audience of 683,000 viewers.
  • Sunday’s game is up 31% vs. Notre Dame’s 2025 season-opener on NBC (Texas A&M on Sept. 13, 6.2M) and up 87% vs. Notre Dame’s 2024 season-opener on NBC (Northern Illinois on Sept. 7, 4.3M).
  • No. 17 Washington’s 24-10 victory over Washington State in the Apple Cup on Sunday (4:02-7:43 p.m. ET) averaged 5.5 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, marking the largest audience for a Big Ten afternoon game on NBC since the package kicked off in 2023.
  • No. 16 Michigan’s 13-12 victory over Western Michigan averaged 4.5 million viewers across NBC and Peacock on Saturday night (7:29-11:01 p.m. ET), marking the largest audience for the season debut of Big Ten Saturday Night. Viewership for the game peaked at 6.7 million viewers in the final quarter hour (10:45-11 p.m. ET).

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