College football bowl ratings continue to trend downward.
Last Saturday’s Army-Houston Armed Forces Bowl delivered a 1.6 rating and 2.58 million viewers on ESPN, down 24% in ratings and 26% in viewership from last year (Army-SDSU: 2.1, 3.49M), but up 10% in the latter from 2016 (Louisiana Tech-Navy: 2.34M).
Despite the drop, Army’s 70-14 win was the second-most watched edition of the game since 2012.
It also ranks as the second-most watched game of the bowl season, behind only the Las Vegas Bowl on ABC the previous week.
In other action, the Wake Forest-Memphis Birmingham Bowl had a 1.6 (-26%) and 2.53 million (-25%), and the Troy-Buffalo Mobile Bowl a 1.0 (even) and 1.70 million (-4%).
Rounding out a clean sweep of declines on Saturday, the Louisiana Tech-Hawaii Hawaii Bowl had a 0.75 (-34%) and 1.16 million (-44%). It was the least-watched edition of the game since at least 2005, falling below the previous mark of 1.36 million in 2016.
Keep in mind the game’s 10:30 PM ET start time was later than usual.
Through Saturday, 12 of 14 bowl games have posted a decline in ratings, and 11 have done so in viewership.
The full list of college football bowl ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 12.27]
