The largest television audience to see the University of Hawaii football team play since the 2008 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl tuned in for Saturday’s 49-10 loss to Southern California.

A spokesman for Fox, which aired the game as its national college debut, said the 3-hour, 26-minute contest averaged 1.8 million viewers.

The game opened with 2.7 million viewers but dropped by 11 percent in the first half hour as the Trojans scored on their first play and jumped off to a 20-0 first-quarter lead, Fox said.

"Overall, we were pleased with the entire night starting with our new pregame show," said Fox spokesman Dan Bell. "Again, the game kicked-off to a solid audience and only decreased due to the early lopsided score."

Rockne Freitas, acting UH athletic director, said the visibility, "was tremendous for us, for our whole university."

The game drew its best audiences in the Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego and Portland, Ore., markets, Fox said.

UH’s largest TV following was the 7.85 million that witnessed the 2008 Sugar Bowl (2007-08 season) loss to Georgia. Approximately 2.9 million saw UH’s 49-21 loss to Notre Dame in the 2008 Hawaii Bowl.

The UH-USC game significantly trailed ABC’s Alabama-Michigan game in the Saturday night prime time slot.

The announced attendance, 93,067 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, was the most for a UH game.

UH is contracted to receive $350,000 for the game, the same amount that the Trojans will earn from the 2013 opener at Aloha Stadium.