Record-low for UGA's 58-point title-game wipeout of TCU

As one would reasonably expect, Georgia’s 65-7 obliteration of TCU was the least-watched college football national championship on record.

Monday’s Georgia-TCU College Football Playoff National Championship averaged an 8.7 rating and 17.22 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks, making it the least-watched college football title game in the history of the College Football Playoff and its predecessor the Bowl Championship Series.

The Bulldogs’ 58-point beatdown — the largest margin of victory in any bowl game — declined 28% in ratings and 24% in viewership from Georgia-Alabama last year (12.1, 22.56M). Per Sports TV Ratings, viewership for the game peaked at 22.37 million from 8:30-8:45 PM ET, dropped below 20 million at 9:15 and dwindled to just 10.3 million in the final quarter-hour (10:45-11 PM).

The four least-watched title games in the BCS/CFP era were decided by at least three touchdowns — Monday’s wipeout, Alabama’s four-touchdown rout of Ohio State two years ago, USC’s 34-point blowout of Oklahoma in 2005 and Miami’s modest-by-comparison 23-point win over Nebraska in 2002 (Miami led at one point 34-0). By comparison, only one of the ten most-watched title games was decided by such a margin, Ohio State’s 22-point win over Oregon in the debut of the playoff eight years ago. For the full list of BCS and CFP ratings, see the following page.

For the second time in three years, the CFP National Championship was not the most-watched game of the season. It trailed both the Georgia-Ohio State (9.8, 22.45M) and TCU-Michigan (10.0, 21.70M) semifinals and barely outdrew Michigan-Ohio State in the regular season (17.14M).

In the key young demographics, Georgia-TCU delivered a 4.85 rating in adults 18-49 — down 23% from last year’s 6.3 — as well as a 3.7 in 18-34 and a 5.7 in 25-54.

The gains for the semifinals canceled out Monday’s sharp decline, helping the full, three-game CFP to a 9% increase over last year (from 18.9M to 20.6M).

Beyond the playoff games and New Year’s Six, the remaining bowl games averaged 2.42 million across the ESPN networks — down from 2.65 million last year.

(Nielsen estimates from ESPN PR, Programming Insider 1.10, Sports TV Ratings/Twitter 1.10)

Bills’ return to field tops Week 18

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

3FGHMN5 Sept 12, 2026. Raleek Brown (0) of the Texas Longhorns in action vs the Ohio State Buckeyes at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin Texas. Texas defeats Ohio State 24-23. Robert Backman/CSM

Ohio State-Texas hits viewership highs on ABC

by Jon Lewis

22 hours ago

For a second-straight year, Ohio State and Texas met in front of an unusually large TV crowd.

3FF78CH Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. 06th Sep, 2026. Wisconsin, USA; Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman leads his team onto the field during NCAA football game action between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Mandatory Credit: John Mersits-Cal Sport Media/Alamy Live News

NBC tops quieter week one of college football season

by Jon Lewis

6 days ago

With fewer marquee matchups on the schedule, week one of the college football season did not feature the blockbuster...

ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit, left, poses with his dog Peter before the start of an NCAA college football game between Texas and Texas A&M on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/Sam Craft)

On the Air: Howling over Herbstreit’s dog

by Armand Broady

2 weeks ago

On the latest "On the Air," thoughts about the backlash against Kirk Herbstreit and his dog Peter.

News: Disney+, LIV Golf, ESPN and more

by Derek Futterman

1 month ago

Disney+ is adding more college football simulcasts this season; LIV Golf has funding for the league to continue; and...

Comments 9

NB says:

4 years ago

I can only imagine if I weren’t a GA alumnus and a big SEC fan going back over 50 years, I too would find year after year of SEC dominance tedious and be bitching and moaning because my team never has a shot against teams that are so much better.

Having said that, I loved the championship game. I am so glad that after years of watching UGA coaches show “good sportsmanship” and not running up the score, that they are finally are just letting nature take it’s course. Not much fun if your team is on the receiving end, but that’s life.
Jimmy says:

4 years ago

Have more fun offenses like Tennessee’s and better matchups between more even teams, & take the SEC schedule into consideration more.
I know it’s hard to make the matchups more even and exciting to watch because every year that Georgia and Alabama keeps winning the more all the great players are going to want to go there. It’s almost a non-ending cycle now because how long Alabama’s been winning and pretty soon Georgia. We might have to rename all the trophies to Alabama Heisman and come to expect all Hall of Fame players to come from Alabama and Georgia. Jk 🤪
I don’t really know what to do now that there’s only a couple of Powerhouse teams with all the great players. Only if NIL starts working and great talent is on multiple teams instead of Alabama, and a couple others. I know everyone loves offense, high scoring games that are close, & not the same Powerhouse teams year after year winning was either easy schedules or easy conferences. People eventually get tired of seeing the same team over and over go to the playoffs and Championship even if they are losing. Eventually people don’t even want to see them lose and are bored with the same teams over and over well their team and fanbase has been down or mediocre for their whole life or years.
🗣GO SOONERS!!! ✌🏻
esl says:

4 years ago

There is no surprise on these ratings. Just an awful game and there was nothing ESPN could have done. I do think moving the championship game off the Monday after football would help in the long run. Also, just listened to the podcast. I agree that the additional number of teams will not be good for college football. This new format of 12 teams will water down the regular season. It is safe to say college football regular season has the most meaningful of all sports. Every game of the contending teams has importance. This will change dramatically. There will be more meaningless games at the end of the season. More blowouts in the playoffs. As discussed on the podcast, I think the best solution for college football is to bring back the New Year’s Day bowl games. Have the 5 major games. Fiesta, Rose, Sugar, Cotton and Orange Bowls all on 1 day. Play it out. Then go back to the BCS championship game 1 week later between #1 and #2. The drama is there. There will always be controversy. But this brings back the tradition of the New Year’s Bowl games. The Rose Bowl can stay in its 5pm et spot without moving. Schedule would be
1pm ET Cotton Bowl. 1:30pm ET Fiesta Bowl. 5pm ET Rose Bowl. 8:30pm ET Orange Bowl. 9pm ET Sugar Bowl. Whoever is 1 vs 2 after New Years Day plays the following week. Thursday or Friday. The winter classic would not like this but, college football fans would have their day back.
- NaBUru38 says:
  
  4 years ago
  
  I would prefer an 8-team playoffs, including the Power 5 champions.
Roy says:

4 years ago

David Pollack is classless..
- NB says:
  
  4 years ago
  
  Did he upset you?
Greg Smith says:

4 years ago

If ESPN idiots would air game on regular t.v. (ESPN on ABC ) so all football fans can watch, ratings would be millions higher. Many can’t afford or refuse to pay ESPN to watch a game. If they want huge ratings , then air on free network television.
Roy Rowe says:

4 years ago

Why do these knucklehead stations show the game on a Saturday night so we don’t have to go to work the next day, it’s crazy showing on a Monday night!!
Nate Johnson says:

4 years ago

I didn’t watch a down or even a second of the game. Was not intrigued at all and didn’t believe TCU would pull it off (nor that the margin would be over half the century). So I made other plans and as much as I love football, less is definitely more.

Two things:

1.) I played a clipped on YouTube of the last TD Georgia did and flipped my phone around to not view the video, but only listen to Chris Fowler do the call. I’m not a fan of Fowler when it comes to him calling games, while at the same time I have no issues of him calling games (he’s solid, just not a fan). I just don’t look at him nearly as much as I look at Keith Jackson, Verne Lundquist, Brent Musberger, or Brad Nessler. With that said, I applaud him for not piling on when I heard him call the last touchdown. Now it was just one play so it’s a small sample size. However, in these championship games or postseason games, there’s hardly any moment where a game gets that one sided like the CFP Title game was. Yet, for some commentators they could try to make it out to be a call that could still engage the remaining viewers on a bigger stage than a regular season match-up which is unnecessary. I can only hope that whenever that happens again in a major sporting event, some other commentator would do the same. Then again, we’ll see. Anyone will do anything for attention especially if it can be widespread on social media.

2.) I saw on this article that the last quarter-hour was 10:45-11PM Eastern which is on the lower end of the average college football game of this magnitude (Closer and more intrigue college football match-ups lasts more than 3 and a half hours and lets remember that the game kicked off before 8PM Eastern). Albeit it was a blowout so normally that would help run the clock by both teams in the 4th Quarter to hurry the game up. So it’s hard to tell how the kick-off change would make an impact on the ratings. With that said, it worked first time around for ESPN, because it’s hard to wonder looking at the quarter-hour ratings on rather viewers would’ve made it to halftime passed an 8 Eastern kickoff with how the game was going and went and also being a work/school night early in the week.