Through three games, overnight ratings for the Bowl Championship Series are down 8%.
The Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl on FOX and the Rose Bowl on ABC have combined to average a 9.4 overnight rating, compared to a 10.3 overnight for the comparable bowl games last year.
The Fiesta Bowl, featuring West Virginia and Oklahoma, averaged an 8.4 rating last night on FOX, up 11% from a 7.6 rating for the comparable Louisville/Wake Forest Orange Bowl telecast in ’07. Compared to the ’07 Fiesta Bowl, the 8.4 average marks a 6% decline.
In other bowl ratings news, the Alamo Bowl was destroyed by the Patriots’ run for perfection. Penn State/Texas A&M averaged 3.8 million viewers on ESPN, down 31% from 5.5 million viewers for the 2007 game.
