The Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl hit historic viewership lows, while the Gator Bowl scored its top audience in seven years.
Monday’s Penn State-Utah Rose Bowl averaged 10.19 million viewers on ESPN, down 39% from Ohio State-Utah on New Year’s Day last year (16.63M) and easily the smallest audience ever for the game. The previous low was 13.55 million for Stanford-Iowa in 2016. Ratings were not immediately available.
While this year’s game aired on January 2 rather than January 1, that has not typically been a major drag on the numbers. The previous January 2 Rose Bowl in 2017 — USC-Penn State — averaged 15.74 million viewers, actually up from the previous year (the aforementioned Stanford-Iowa game).
Earlier in the day, the Tulane-USC Cotton Bowl averaged just 4.17 million — the smallest audience ever for a New Year’s Six (or Bowl Championship Series) game. The previous low was 5.01 million for the December 2014 Peach Bowl between TCU and Mississippi.
The Green Wave’s win also ranks as the least-watched Cotton Bowl since 2005 (4.02M). While the game has been part of the New Year’s Six since its inception, it was not part of the BCS.
The Cotton Bowl averaged fewer viewers than several non-New Year’s Six bowls, including Friday’s Notre Dame-South Carolina Gator Bowl — which averaged a 3.1 rating and 5.77 million viewers, up 48% in ratings and two-thirds in viewership from last year (Wake Forest-Rutgers: 2.1, 3.48M) and the largest audience for the game since January 2016 (Georgia-Penn State: 5.87M).
The Gator Bowl ranks as the most-watched of the non-New Year’s Six games, topping the previous night’s Florida State-Oklahoma game (5.40M).
Earlier Friday, ESPN averaged a 1.6 and 2.68 million for Maryland-NC State from Charlotte, flat in ratings and up 3% in viewership from last year (South Carolina-North Carolina: 1.6, 2.60M). The Pittsburgh-UCLA Sun Bowl scored a 1.5 and 2.76 million on CBS, down 17% and 3%, respectively.
Facing the Sugar Bowl on Saturday (Alabama-Kansas State: 4.8, 9.14M), the Iowa-Kentucky Music City Bowl drew a 1.7 and 3.0 million on ABC — down sharply from last year, when it aired on ESPN in and faced no such competition (Purdue-Tennessee: 3.1, 5.59M).
Returning to Monday, ESPN2 averaged 2.18 million for Mississippi State-Illinois in Tampa Bay — down 45% from last year on New Year’s Day (Penn State-Arkansas: 3.95M). Viewership was not immediately available for Monday’s fourth bowl game, LSU’s Citrus Bowl rout of Purdue on ABC.
