Joining the ‘New Year’s Six’ could not help the Peach Bowl overcome a weaker timeslot this year.
The TCU/Mississippi Peach Bowl, part of the New Year’s Six bowl series, drew a 3.4 rating and 5.0 million viewers on ESPN Wednesday afternoon — down 32% in ratings and 42% in viewership from Texas A&M/Duke last year (5.0, 8.7M), and down 29% and 41%, respectively, from Clemson/LSU in 2012 (4.8, 8.6M).
The Horned Frogs’ blowout win ranks as the least-watched Peach Bowl since at least 2006, falling below the previous nine-year mark of 5.6 million for the 2008 game.
The Peach Bowl marked the beginning of the New Year’s Six, the replacement for the old Bowl Championship Series. It earned a lower rating and fewer viewers than every single BCS bowl (72 games from 1999-2014), ranking well behind the record-low of 4.5 and 7.2 million for the 2012 Orange Bowl.
Keep in mind no BCS game ever started as early as 12:30 PM ET, the kickoff time for Wednesday’s game. The early kickoff was also unusual for the Peach Bowl, which had been in primetime each year since 2004.
Despite the lower numbers, the Peach Bowl did improve dramatically over last year’s comparable Arizona/Boston College Independence Bowl — with ratings and viewership up by 143% and 144%, respectively, from a 1.4 and 2.1 million. It was also ESPN’s most-watched New Year’s Eve game ever in the Noon ET timeslot.
(Wed. numbers via ESPN Media Zone)
