The new quarterfinal round of the expanded College Football Playoff delivered solid numbers on the ESPN networks, if unsurprisingly down from the semifinal games that aired over the New Year’s holiday in past years.
The four College Football Playoff quarterfinal bowls averaged 16.9 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks, up from 15.1 million the same four bowl games last year — which consisted of two semifinals and two games with no playoff implications.
Despite a one-day delay from New Year’s Day, the Notre Dame-Georgia quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl averaged 15.8 million viewers Thursday afternoon — down 16% from a Washington-Texas semifinal in the traditional post-Rose Bowl window last year (18.77M).
Notre Dame’s win, which peaked with 19.5 million viewers, ranks as the least-watched playoff edition of the Sugar Bowl. That is no surprise given the delay, which pushed the game into a weekday afternoon timeslot on a day when much of the country went back to work.
The Sugar Bowl actually held up better relative to last year than the Rose Bowl. Ohio State’s blowout of Oregon averaged 21.1 million on the ESPN networks New Year’s Day, down 24% from Michigan’s overtime win over Alabama in last year’s semifinals (27.6M) and ahead of only 2021 — when the game was played in Arlington, Texas — as the least-watched playoff edition of the game.
The Rose Bowl, which peaked with 24.3 million, still delivered the top audience of the college football season.
Leading into the Rose Bowl, the Texas-Arizona State Peach Bowl averaged 17.3 million — the largest audience on record for a bowl game that began prior to 3 PM ET. Compared to the same 1 PM ET window last year, which featured three different bowl games across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, viewership increased 7% from 16.1 million.
Viewership declined sharply from the last Peach Bowl to host a playoff game, Georgia’s last-second win over Ohio State in a primetime 2022 semifinal (22.4M).
The Longhorns’ win, which peaked with 23.6 million, ranks as the third-most watched Peach Bowl on record — though it should be noted that the game had never carried playoff implications prior to its inclusion in the CFP. (By comparison, the Sugar, Rose, Fiesta and Orange bowl games had all hosted national championships in the BCS era.)
Rounding out the playoff slate, the New Year’s Eve Fiesta Bowl between Penn State and Boise State averaged 13.9 million — marking the least-watched playoff edition of the game. The previous such edition was the TCU-Michigan semifinal in 2022 that averaged 21.7 million.
Penn State’s win, which peaked with 15.9 million, was the only quarterfinal to trail any of the first round playoff games — trailing Tennessee-Ohio State (14.7M).
