The Birmingham Bowl soared to record numbers on ESPN.
The Florida/ECU Birmingham Bowl drew a 3.0 final rating and 4.5 million viewers on ESPN Saturday afternoon, up 67% in ratings and 74% in viewership from Vanderbilt/Houston last year (1.8, 2.6M) and up 58% and 68%, respectively, from Mississippi/Pittsburgh in 2012 (1.9, 2.7M).
The Gators’ win ranks as the most-watched Birmingham Bowl ever (nine games dating back to 2006). The previous high was 3.3 million for Pittsburgh/Kentucky in the 2010-11 season, and no other game has cracked the three million mark.
Unlike in previous years, this year’s Birmingham Bowl was the lead-in to NFL playoff coverage on ESPN. The game’s conclusion even ran several minutes into the network’s scheduled NFL pregame show. The game likely benefited, at least to some extent, from viewers who were waiting around for ESPN’s NFL coverage.
(Sat. numbers via Bloomberg, ShowBuzz Daily)
