The Fiesta Bowl was a classic on the field and a dud — relatively speaking — in the ratings.
Last Thursday’s Miami-Mississippi College Football Playoff semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl averaged 15.8 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks, topping only Clemson-Oklahoma on New Year’s Eve 2015 (15.7M) as the least-watched semifinal of the CFP era. Given the changes in Nielsen methodology over that span — Nielsen did not even begin tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020 — it is almost certain that this year’s audience would trail the 2015 figure all things being equal.
Among all bowl games with playoff or national title implications, only one other has averaged fewer than 15.8 million in the BCS/CFP era — last year’s Fiesta Bowl (Penn State-Boise State), a playoff quarterfinal that aired on New Year’s Eve. (As might go without saying, the new first round games are not bowls and are instead hosted by the higher seeded team.)
The Hurricanes’ narrow win, which peaked with 17.2 million viewers, declined 11% from last year’s Thursday semifinal — Notre Dame-Penn State in the Orange Bowl (17.8M).
Notably, viewership trailed all four of the playoff quarterfinals, which aired over the New Year’s holiday — the least-watched of which was Oregon-Texas Tech in the early afternoon New Year’s Day window (15.9M). Miami’s Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State drew 19.0 million on New Year’s Eve and Mississippi’s Sugar Bowl win over Georgia drew 18.7 million on New Year’s night.
While the game itself was a tightly-contested, back-and-forth affair, it was nonetheless a non-traditional matchup of teams that had not been in championship contention in recent years. Prior to this year, Miami had not played a bowl game with title implications since the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, which served as the BCS National Championship. Mississippi had never played a game with title implications in the CFP or BCS era — or even the Bowl Alliance and Bowl Coalition eras that preceded them.
In addition to the non-traditional nature of the game, it is worth noting that it took place on a day of breaking news that may have drawn more viewers than usual to the cable news channels.
