While the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six took up most of the headlines, viewership for the sport’s lesser bowls improved over last year’s reduced slate.
The 31 non-New Year’s Six college football bowl games on the ESPN family of networks averaged 2.57 million viewers — up 12% from last year’s diminished 28-game slate but down 9% from two seasons ago. Excluding the unusually-strong 2020 Citrus Bowl (see below), viewership actually increased 1% from two years ago.
The New Year’s Day Kentucky-Iowa Citrus Bowl was the most-watched non-New Year’s Six bowl game, averaging a 3.5 and 6.46 million viewers on ABC — up 24% in ratings and 35% in viewership from last year (Auburn-Northwestern: 2.8, 4.78M) but down 57% and 54% from the aforementioned 2020 game (Alabama-Michigan: 8.0, 14.00M).
The full list of bowl ratings is available on the following chart (click to expand). The playoff semifinals are compared to previous semis.
The December 30 Purdue-Tennessee Music City Bowl ranked second at a 3.1 and 5.59 million, up 123% in ratings and 154% in viewership from the last time it was played in 2019 (Mississippi State-Louisville: 1.4, 2.20M).
Other bowl ratings previously unreported on this site include a 2.2 (-12%) and 3.95 million (-4%) for the New Year’s Day Penn State-Arkansas Outback Bowl on ESPN2, the smallest audience for that game since 2018 (Iowa-Mississippi State: 1.8, 3.26M) — not coincidentally the previous time it aired on ESPN2.
The December 30 Wisconsin-Arizona State Las Vegas Bowl pulled a 2.2 and 3.65 million, up 35% and 39% respectively from the last time it was held in 2019 (Boise State-Washington: 1.6, 2.64M) and the most-watched edition of the game since 2018 (Boise State-Oregon: 2.3, 3.80M).
The New Year’s Eve Wake Forest-Rutgers Gator Bowl drew a 2.1 and 3.48 million, up 24% in ratings and 29% in viewership from last year (Kentucky-NC State: 1.7, 2.71M) but down 19% in both measures from two years ago (Tennessee-Indiana: 2.6, 4.32M).
Airing in a competing window on CBS, the Central Michigan-Washington State Sun Bowl averaged a 1.8 and 2.85 million viewers on CBS — down 16% in ratings and 10% in viewership from the last time it was played in 2019 (FSU-Arizona State: 2.1, 3.17M), but up from last year’s Arizona Bowl in a similar window.
The December 30 South Carolina-North Carolina Charlotte Bowl, which ended with the Gamecocks’ coach receiving a much-publicized dousing of mayonnaise, drew a 1.6 an 2.60 million on ESPN — up 32% in ratings and 31% in viewership from last year (Wake Forest-Wisconsin: 1.2, 1.98M) but down 7% and 1% respectively from ’19 (Virginia Tech-Kentucky: 1.7, 2.62M).
Finally, the January 4 Kansas State-LSU Texas Bowl drew a 1.4 and 2.36 million — down a whopping 52% from the last time it was played in ’19 (Oklahoma State-Texas A&M: 2.8, 4.90M) and the smallest audience for the game since it last aired on NFL Network in 2008 (Rice-Western Michigan: 186K).
All other bowl figures have been previously reported.
In other college football action, this past Saturday’s FCS National Championship averaged a 0.8 and 1.32 million on ESPN2 — up 51% in ratings and 46% in viewership from last season’s May title game (0.55, 905K) but down 54% and 51% from the January title game two years ago (1.8, 2.69M). Both of the previous games aired on ABC.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily, network PR]
