After hitting a high point last year, viewership plunged for the Belk Bowl.
Wednesday’s Mississippi State/N.C. State Belk Bowl drew 3.5 million viewers on ESPN, down 45% from Georgia/Louisville last year (6.4M) and down 27% from North Carolina/Cincinnati in 2013 (4.8M). Ratings were not immediately available.
The Bulldogs’ win ranks as the least-watched Belk Bowl in four years, barely edging N.C. State/Louisville in 2011 (3.50M to 3.47M). Overall, it earned the third-smallest audience for the game in the past ten seasons, ahead of 2011 and USF/Clemson in 2010 (2.9M).
Keep in mind this year’s game was just the second Belk Bowl to air on a weekday afternoon. In recent years, the game has aired in primetime (2011, 2012, 2014) or on the weekend (2013).
The Belk Bowl was the third of Wednesday’s four bowl games to plunge by more than a third in viewership, with the Holiday Bowl down 38% and the Birmingham Bowl off 48%.
(Wed. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
