College football’s bowl season continues to turn in a number of big increases and multi-year highs, with some exceptions.
Wednesday’s Clemson-Iowa State Orlando Bowl averaged 4.90 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience for the game since 2013 (Louisville-Miami: 5.75M). Viewership jumped 53% from last year (Oklahoma State-Miami: 3.20M) and 18% from 2019 (Notre Dame-Iowa State: 4.17M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Clemson’s win ranks as the most-watched game of the bowl season thus far (through Wednesday). It also delivered the second-largest audience of the entire season on cable, behind only LSU-Alabama on ESPN in November (5.0M).
Airing immediately afterward, the Oklahoma-Oregon Alamo Bowl pulled 4.74 million — up 59% from last year (Colorado-Texas: 2.98M) but down 16% from 2019 (Utah-Texas: 5.61M). It ranks second for the bowl season and third for the season on cable.
Ranking third for the bowl season, Tuesday’s Mississippi State-Texas Tech Liberty Bowl averaged 3.92 million — up 5% from last year (Army-West Virginia: 3.74M), up 18% from 2019 (Navy-Kansas State: 3.33M) and the largest audience for the game since the 2015-16 season (Arkansas-Kansas State: 7.05M).
Also on the upswing, the Air Force-Louisville First Responder Bowl drew 2.73 million — up 32% from last year (UTSA-Louisiana: 2.08M), up 112% from 2019 (WKU-WMU: 1.29M) and the largest audience for the game in its history.
The Houston-Auburn Birmingham Bowl (2.29M) jumped 51% from the last time it was played in 2019 (Cincinnati-Boston College: 1.52M).
On the downside, the Pinstripe Bowl (Maryland-Virginia Tech: 2.44M) declined 36% from the last time it was played in ’19 (Michigan State-Wake Forest: 3.80M) and the smallest audience for the game since 2016 (Northwestern-Pittsburgh: 2.43M).
The Cactus Bowl (West Virginia-Minnesota: 2.40M) slipped 8% from 2019 (Washington State-Air Force: 2.62M) and was also the least-watched since 2016 (Baylor-Boise State: 2.28M).
Finally, the Detroit Bowl (WMU-Nevada: 1.07M) plunged 65% from 2019 (Pittsburgh-Eastern Michigan: 3.05M) and was the least-watched Detroit-based bowl game in at least 15 years. The 11 AM ET start was earlier than usual (the 2019 game started at 8 PM).
Figures for Thursday’s games will not be available until next week.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily, network PR]
