The Cotton Bowl cruised to the largest sports audience of Friday, December 29.
Missouri’s low-scoring Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State averaged a 4.9 rating and 9.72 million viewers on ESPN, which as previously noted is the largest audience for the game — excluding years it hosted a playoff semifinal — since 2013. The Cotton Bowl was easily the most-watched television program of the day and more-than-doubled last year’s Tulane-USC matchup, which aired on the New Year’s Day holiday and averaged a 2.3 and 4.17 million.
Ranking a distant second for the day, the Memphis-Iowa State Liberty Bowl averaged a 1.9 and 3.60 million — down 9% and 8% respectively from last year in a later timeslot (Arkansas-Kansas: 2.1, 3.91M). The Clemson-Kentucky Gator Bowl led-in with a 1.9 and 3.43 million, down sharply from Notre Dame-South Carolina last year (3.1, 5.77M).
Speaking of Notre Dame, the team’s Sun Bowl matchup against Oregon State averaged a 1.8 and 3.26 million on CBS — up 21% and 18% respectively from Pittsburgh-UCLA last year (1.5, 2.76M) and the largest audience for the game since 2015 (Washington State-Miami: 4.70M).
Outside of college football, the top sporting event of the day was a Grizzlies-Clippers NBA regular season game on NBA TV at a 0.21 and 344,000. Bucks-Cavaliers led-in with a 0.18 and 295,000. On the comparable night of last season, NBA TV carried a solo Bucks-Nets game that averaged a 0.22 and 385,000.
Shifting to college basketball, San Diego State-Gonzaga led the way with a 0.17 and 292,000 on ESPN2, followed by its Arizona State-Stanford lead-out at a 0.12 and 239,000. BTN chipped in a 0.08 and 200,000 for Eastern Kentucky-Purdue and a 0.08 and 163,000 for Fairleigh Dickinson-Illinois.
Friday, December 29 sports ratings
