Capping off a weak start to the New Year’s Six, the Orange Bowl earned its second-worst rating in over twenty years.
The Georgia Tech/Mississippi State Orange Bowl drew a 5.0 final rating and 8.9 million viewers on ESPN, down 25% in ratings and 22% in viewership from Clemson/Ohio State last year (6.7, 11.4M) and down 18% and 15%, respectively, from Florida State/Northern Illinois in 2012 (6.1, 10.6M).
The 5.0 rating is the second-lowest for the Orange Bowl since 1993 (4.0), ahead of only a 4.5 for West Virginia/Clemson in 2011. The Orange Bowl has now failed to hit a 7.0 rating in seven consecutive seasons.
The Orange Bowl completed an ugly performance for the first half of the New Year’s Six. All three New Year’s Eve bowls hit multi-year lows in ratings and viewership, with double-digit year-over-year declines in both measures. Each of the games drew a rating of 5.0 or lower, compared to just one such BCS bowl (72 games from 1999-2014).
Compared to last New Year’s Eve, the games fared better. The Orange Bowl edged last year’s comparable Peach Bowl by 3% in viewership (8.9M to 8.7M), good enough to rank as ESPN’s most-watched New Year’s Eve game ever, regardless of timeslot. The full tripleheader averaged a 4.3 and 7.1 million, up 54% in ratings and 53% in viewership from last year (2.8, 4.6M for the Independence, Liberty and Peach), and ESPN’s top New Year’s Eve tripleheader on record.
(Wed. numbers via ESPN Media Zone)
