By the lofty standards of college football national championship games, Clemson’s thrilling win over Alabama did not resonate in the ratings.
Monday’s Clemson/Alabama College Football Playoff National Championship had a combined 14.2 final rating and 25.3 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, down 5% in ratings and 3% in viewership from the same matchup last year (15.0, 26.2M) and down 24% and 26% respectively from Ohio State/Oregon in 2015 (18.6, 34.1M).
ESPN alone pulled a 13.7 (-7%) and 24.4 million (-5%), the ESPN2 “Homers” broadcast had a 0.5 and 803,000 (+254%), and the Bill Walton-fronted “ESPN Voices” coverage on ESPNU had just 72,000 (-69%).
The Tigers’ literal last-second win was the lowest rated and least-watched college football national championship since Alabama/LSU in an all-SEC matchup five years ago (14.0, 24.2M). Going back further, the 14.2 rating is the fourth-lowest for a title game since the start of the Bowl Championship Series in 1999, ahead of Alabama/LSU, Miami/Nebraska in the 2002 Rose Bowl (13.8) and USC/Oklahoma in a 36-point Orange Bowl rout in 2005 (13.7).
It was the sixth-least watched title game since the start of the BCS, ranking behind the above mentioned games and LSU’s 2004 and 2008 wins.
Figures do not include the 710,000 viewers who streamed coverage on WatchESPN, up 21% from last year (585K) and the third-largest audience ever on the platform. With those numbers included, the game had 26.0 million viewers. Nor do figures include out-of-home viewing in bars and restaurants, which will be added to Nielsen viewership data later this year. That information is retroactive to September, meaning at some point this year data for Monday’s game should be available.
In adults 18-49, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU combined for an 8.3 rating — down a tick from last year (8.4) and the lowest in the demo since LSU/Ohio State on FOX in 2008 (8.2).
Compared to other sports, Clemson/Alabama posted a lower rating than all four games of NFL Wild Card Weekend, though it did edge Raiders/Texans in viewership (25.1M). It trailed the clinching games of last year’s World Series and NBA Finals, with the important caveat that both series ended in a seventh game. It did easily top last year’s Villanova/North Carolina college basketball championship, another classic that posted historically low numbers (10.6, 17.8M).
It is worth noting that the last three major sport rematches have each declined in the ratings. Last year’s Cavaliers/Warriors NBA Finals averaged a lower rating over seven games (11.4) than the previous year’s series did over six (11.6) — though it still managed a larger audience. The 2014 Spurs/Heat NBA Finals averaged a much lower rating (9.3) than the previous year’s matchup (10.5), with the obvious caveat that the 2014 series was a five-game wipeout and the 2013 matchup a seven-game thriller. The last rematch to do better than the original was the 2009 Penguins/Red Wings Stanley Cup Final, which averaged a slightly higher rating for seven games (2.7) than the previous year’s six-game matchup (2.6).
As one would expect, Monday’s game still ranked among the top programs in cable television history, with the ESPN-only audience of 24.4 million ranking eighth all-time. Even with cable news programming setting viewership records in the past two years, ESPN still owns the nine largest cable audiences ever.
(Mon. numbers from ESPN, with additional info from Programming Insider 1/11 and Sports TV Ratings 1/10)
