A move to primetime broadcast television could not save San Francisco’s annual bowl game from a four-year viewership low.
The Utah/Indiana Foster Farms Bowl had 2.6 million viewers on the FOX broadcast network Wednesday night, down 35% from UCLA/Nebraska last year (4.0M) and down 19% from Stanford/Maryland in 2014 (3.2M), both of which aired on ESPN. Ratings were not immediately available.
The Utes’ win marked the least-watched edition of the game in four years, since Arizona State/Navy scored just 1.1 million on ESPN2 in 2012, and the third-least watched in at least a decade — ahead of only 2012 and Nevada/Boston College in January 2011 (2.5M).
It was also the least-watched bowl game on a broadcast network, regardless of timeslot, since the 2014 Las Vegas Bowl on ABC (1.4, 2.1M). That does not include the FCS Celebration Bowl, which actually had a larger audience this year (2.71M to 2.63M).
The Foster Farms Bowl ranked third out of the four bowl games Wednesday, trailing both the Russell Athletic Bowl (4.3M) and Texas Bowl (3.8M), the latter head-to-head. It edged the Pinstripe Bowl, which aired during the afternoon (2.4M).
(Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 12/30)
