The Holiday Bowl earned its largest television audience in nearly a decade.
The USC/Nebraska Holiday Bowl drew a 4.0 final rating and 6.8 million viewers on ESPN Saturday night, up 82% in ratings and 93% in viewership from Texas Tech/Arizona State last year (2.2, 3.5M), up 100% and 133% from Baylor/UCLA in 2012 (2.0, 2.9M), and the most-watched Holiday Bowl since Oklahoma/Oregon in 2005 (4.1, 7.3M).
The previous mark was 6.2 million for Oregon/Oklahoma State in 2008.
Overall, Saturday’s game ranks as the sixth-most watched Holiday Bowl since ESPN acquired rights — trailing only Arizona/Nebraska in 1998 (7.3M), Oklahoma/Oregon in 2005, Texas/Washington in 2001 (7.2M), Oregon/Texas in 2000 (7.0M), and Washington State/Texas in 2003 (6.9M).
The Trojans’ win also ranks as the most-watched game of the bowl season-to-date on ESPN (21 telecasts through Tuesday). Tuesday’s Georgia/Louisville Belk Bowl was the only other to top the six million mark (6.4M).
(Sat. numbers from Bloomberg/ShowBuzz Daily)
UPDATE 12/31: The original version of this post was one-year off on the recent Holiday Bowl games, mistakenly referring to last year’s Holiday Bowl as this year’s game.
