Back on New Year’s Eve for the first time in five years, the College Football Playoff semifinals hit a new ratings low.
The CFP semifinals averaged an 8.3 rating and 16.9 million viewers on ESPN last Friday, marking the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the semifinal games since they debuted in the 2014-15 season. Viewership fell slightly below the 2015 semis, the only other time the games took place on a New Year’s Eve weekday. Despite the ratings low, the games averaged their largest share — 26 — since the record-setting first year of the playoff.
In particular, the Alabama-Cincinnati Cotton Bowl averaged an 8.6 rating and 16.65 million viewers — down 10% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year’s Alabama-Notre Dame Rose Bowl (9.6, 18.89M) and down 9% and 3% respectively from the LSU-Oklahoma Peach Bowl in 2019 (9.5, 17.21M).
The Crimson Tide’s easy win, which peaked with 18.2 million viewers, posted the smallest audience for a CFP semifinal since the Clemson-Oklahoma Orange Bowl in 2015 (15.73M).
In the nightcap, the Michigan-Georgia Orange Bowl pulled an 8.1 and 17.19 million — down 17% in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year’s Ohio State-Clemson Sugar Bowl (9.8, 19.15M) and down 27% and 19% respectively from the 2019 Ohio State-Clemson Fiesta Bowl (11.1, 21.15M).
Georgia’s rout, which peaked with 20.5 million, nonetheless outdrew every non-football, non-Olympic sportscast since the 2019 World Series.
Both games posted the lowest ratings yet for a CFP semifinal. No previous semifinal had dropped below an 9.0.
Notably, the semifinals were not much higher than the New Year’s Day Rose Bowl. Ohio State’s thrilling win over Utah averaged an 8.2 and 16.63 million — down 6% in ratings but up 2% in viewership from the last time it was played as scheduled two years ago (Oregon-Wisconsin: 8.7, 16.30M).
The Rose Bowl, which peaked with 19.7 million viewers, delivered the second-largest audience for a non-semifinal bowl game in the playoff era. The 2019 Ohio State-Washington Rose Bowl averaged 16.9 million.
In other New Year’s Six action, the Baylor-Mississippi Sugar Bowl pulled a 5.1 and 9.79 million, peaking at 13.6 million — down 11% and 4% respectively from the last non-semifinal edition two years ago (Georgia-Baylor: 5.7, 10.22M). The game faced the NHL Winter Classic, which scored that league’s largest cable audience on record.
The Oklahoma State-Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl drew a 4.2 and 7.96 million, peaking at 14.3 million — up 10% in ratings and 19% in viewership from last year (Iowa State-Oregon: 3.8, 6.68M), but down 15% and 9% respectively from last year’s Peach Bowl in the same New Year’s Day window (Georgia-Cincinnati: 4.9, 8.73M). It also trailed the last Fiesta Bowl to air in the early New Year’s Day slot, LSU-UCF in 2018 (4.7, 8.47M).
Finally, last Thursday’s Michigan State-Pittsburgh Peach Bowl delivered a 4.0 and 7.65 million, peaking at 8.7 million — down 18% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year’s New Year’s Day edition (Georgia-Cincinnati: 4.9, 8.73M), but the largest audience for a standalone New Year’s Six game since the Ohio State-USC Cotton Bowl in 2017 (5.3, 9.47M).
The full New Year’s Six averaged 12.7 million viewers, up from last year.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 1.5, network PR]
