Ratings: ESPN 2017 Wrap, ESPN Bowl Games, Sun Bowl

ESPN’s primetime viewership increased 7% to 2.1 million in 2017, the network announced Wednesday. Figures include both TV and streaming. The network’s total day viewership also increased 1%, but exact figures were not disclosed. In the final quarter of the year, ESPN’s primetime audience increased 13% and its total day audience 9% over last year’s election-suppressed numbers. [ESPN PR]

ESPN/ABC averaged 5.0 million viewers for 35 college football bowl games this season, up 12% from last year. Excluding the New Year’s six, bowl games averaged 2.9 million (+7%). Figures include TV and streaming unless otherwise noted.

Wrapping up the pre-New Year’s bowls, Friday’s Northwestern-Kentucky Music City Bowl scored 4.6 million, down 8% from last year (Tennessee-Nebraska: 5.0M*), down 15% from two years ago (Louisville-Texas A&M: 5.4M*) and the game’s smallest audience since 2013. Despite the low, it posted the third-largest audience of the bowl season outside of the New Year’s Six.

Earlier in the day, the Wake Forest-Texas A&M Belk Bowl drew 3.0 million — down 40% from last year (VT-Arkansas: 5.0M*), down 16% from two years ago (Mississippi State-N.C. State: 3.5M*), and that game’s smallest audience since 2010 (USF-Clemson: 2.9M).

On Saturday, the Mississippi State-Louisville Gator Bowl had 4.4 million on ESPN (+67%) and the Iowa State-Memphis Liberty Bowl had 3.4 million* on ABC (+10%). [ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 1.2, 1.3]

Friday’s N.C. State-Arizona State Sun Bowl had 2.2 million viewers on CBS, down 25% from last year (Stanford-UNC: 2.9M), down 53% from two years ago (Stanford-Washington: 4.7M), and the game’s smallest audience in at least a decade. It was the most-watched of the three non-ESPN bowls on a Nielsen-rated network (CBSSN is not rated). [ShowBuzz 1.2]