The playoff semifinals generated the most headlines, but the other New Year’s Day bowl ratings were also impressive.
The UCF-Auburn Peach Bowl had a 4.6 rating and 8.4 million viewers on ESPN New Year’s Day, up 24% in ratings and 46% in viewership from Houston-Florida State on New Year’s Eve two years ago (3.7, 5.7M). Last year’s Peach Bowl was part of the College Football Playoff and had a 10.7 and 19.8 million. All figures include TV and streaming viewership unless otherwise noted.
Compared to last year’s Wisconsin-Western Michigan Cotton Bowl in the same timeslot, ratings increased 48% from a 3.1 and viewership 50% from 5.6 million.
Outside of last year’s playoff semifinal, the Knights’ win was the most-watched Peach Bowl since Texas A&M-Duke in 2013 (8.7M) and the third-most watched all-time.
The Peach Bowl was part of a near-record day for ESPN. Aided primarily by the College Football Playoff semifinals, ESPN averaged 6.1 million viewers on January 1, the network’s second-largest total-day audience ever. It trails January 1, 2015, the only other time the CFP semifinals have aired on New Year’s Day (7.5M). Four of the five most-watched days in ESPN history have featured the CFP semifinals.
Despite the strong numbers, the Peach Bowl did not even win its own timeslot. The competing Notre Dame-LSU Citrus Bowl had 8.73 million viewers on ABC, up 37% from LSU-Louisville on New Year’s Eve last year (6.4M*) and down a fraction of a percent from Michigan-Florida two years ago (8.76M*).
Notre Dame’s win ranks as the most-watched bowl game outside of the New Year’s Six. Despite the strong numbers, it ranks only fourth out of the last six Citrus Bowl telecasts.
Rounding out the early afternoon action, ESPN2 scored 5.1 million for the South Carolina-Michigan Outback Bowl — down 17% from last year on ABC (Florida-Iowa: 6.1M*) but up 17% from two years ago on ESPN2 (Tennessee-Northwestern: 2.8M*).
Together, the three games combined for 22.1 million viewers — up 92% from two games in the same window last year (11.5M).
* TV-only audience.
[Numbers from ESPN]
