The College Football Playoff experienced a big ratings drop over the weekend. 16.8 million people tuned in for Clemson’s demolition of Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl, while just over 19 million tuned in for Alabama’s win in primetime over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. Both games were played on Saturday night, December 29.
The numbers represent a 25% drop from the total audience of 48 million that watched the semifinals last year. Those games, the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, were played on New Year’s Day. The ratings for this year’s Orange and Cotton Bowls rank seventh and ninth respectively amongst all ten College Football Playoff semifinals in history.
ESPN pays $600 million per year to televise the New Year’s Six bowls, including the two that are part of the College Football Playoff, and the National Championship Game. That contract stipulates that no matter which two bowls are the national semifinals, the Rose and Sugar Bowls will always be played on New Year’s Day. The six semifinal games that were not played on New Year’s Day all experienced ratings drops from the semifinal games most recently played in that time slot.
It is unfair to say that the games not being on New Year’s Day is the sole reason viewership slipped from last year. However, it’s worth noting that one of New Year’s Day’s games, the Rose Bowl between Ohio State and Washington, did beat the Cotton Bowl in viewership.
Other factors that could have contributed to the falloff in ratings include viewer fatigue, as Alabama has been in every College Football Playoff, Clemson has been in all but one, and Oklahoma has been in three of the last four. There is also the lack of suspense in either game. The Cotton Bowl was a blowout, and although Oklahoma had a very good second half in the Orange Bowl, Alabama was up 28-0 before the Sooners scored a single point.
