The second Georgia-Alabama matchup in four years was a so-so ratings draw by the lofty standards of college football national championship games.
Monday’s Georgia-Alabama College Football Playoff National Championship averaged a 12.1 rating and 22.6 million viewers on the ESPN family of networks, up 17% in ratings and 21% in viewership from Alabama-Ohio State last year, the least-watched national championship of the CFP or BCS era (10.3, 18.65M) but down 15% and 12% respectively from LSU-Clemson two years ago (14.3, 25.59M).
The Bulldogs’ win, which peaked with 25.4 million viewers, delivered television’s largest non-NFL sports audience since LSU-Clemson two years ago, topping every night of the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year. It was the most-watched football game of a 72-hour period that included seven Week 18 NFL windows, comfortably topping the previous night’s Chargers-Raiders NFL season finale on NBC (17.69M).
Nonetheless, it tops only last year as the lowest-rated national championship in the history of the CFP or its predecessor the Bowl Championship Series and the least-watched since USC 55, Oklahoma 19 in 2005 (21.42M). Overall, Georgia-Alabama delivered the fourth-smallest audience for the title game in the history of the CFP/BCS, topping only last year, 2005 and Miami-Nebraska in 2002 (21.56M).
The last time Alabama and Georgia played for the national championship four years ago, their overtime thriller delivered a much stronger audience of 28.44 million. The only other all-SEC title game matchup, Alabama 21, LSU 0 in 2012, averaged 24.21 million.
Despite the historically low viewership, the game’s 29 share — meaning 29% of households with televisions in use were tuned to the game — was the highest of the CFP era. Keep in mind that as viewers tune out of live sports, they are generally not watching anything else on linear television either. As a result, the share for major sporting events will continue to grow as the number of households with televisions in use diminishes.
Notably, this year’s “Megacast” audience was particularly minuscule this year. The ESPN-only audience of 22.26 million accounted for 98.6% of the audience, the highest of the “Megacast” era, while neither ESPN2 (158K) or ESPNU (148K) cracked the 200,000 viewer mark. Spanish-language coverage on ESPN Deportes chipped in 102,000.
The National Championship averaged a 6.3 rating in adults 18-49, up 21% from last year (5.2) but down 18% from two years ago (7.7).
The complete, three-game College Football Playoff averaged 18.9 million viewers — down 1% from last year (19.1M) and down 13% from two years ago (21.65M). While the National Championship rebounded from last year, it was not enough to make up for the weak numbers for the New Year’s Eve semifinals.
The four non-playoff bowls under the New Year’s Six banner averaged 10.7 million, up 47% from last year (when that slate did not include the Rose and Sugar bowls) and 9% from 2019.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily, network PR]
