Quarterfinal games within the 12-team College Football Playoff averaged 16.9 million viewers on ESPN platforms as the network presented pivotal game action last week. The Rose Bowl Game led the pack with an average of 21.1 million viewers watching the matchup between Ohio State and Oregon on Wednesday night, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. Compared to the previous year, the matchup was down 24% from the overtime thriller between Michigan and Alabama in the semifinals last year. The game was the most-watched non-NFL sporting event since the National Championship Game within last year’s College Football Playoff. Viewership for the matchup peaked at 24.3 million viewers, helping to garner the largest audience of the college football season thus far.
As part of the ESPN MegaCast presentation, the network presented a new edition of Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN2. The telecast made history as the most-viewed alternate broadcast in ESPN history with an average of 2.4 million viewers. Earlier in the day, College GameDay also collected an average of 2.4 million viewers for a three-hour episode of the show airing live from the Rose Bowl Game. The pregame show was up 70% year-over-year and peaked at 4.6 million viewers.
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between Texas and Arizona State drew an average of 17.3 million viewers, marking the most-watched College Football Playoff game in history to kick off before 3 p.m. EST. Viewership declined by 22.7% from the last iteration of the Peach Bowl when Georgia attained a sudden victory over Ohio State in prime time. Yet viewership within the overall 1 p.m. EST window recorded a 7% increase from the 16.1 million it averaged last year when three different Bowl games aired concurrently on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. The viewership of this year’s Peach Bowl peaked with an audience of 23.6 million, marking the third most-watched Peach Bowl in history. Texas will face Ohio State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on Friday at 7:30 p.m. EST with a spot in the National Championship Game on the line.
A truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that killed 14 people and injured several more civilians delayed kickoff of the Allstate Sugar Bowl by 20 hours from Caesars Superdome. The quarterfinal game between Notre Dame and Georgia averaged 15.8 million viewers in the afternoon slot, down 16% from the semifinal game in the traditional Rose Bowl window last year. The game was the least-watched playoff edition of the Sugar Bowl and peaked with 19.5 million viewers.
Concluding the slate of games, the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl started action in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. EST and averaged 13.9 million viewers. This is the least-watched playoff edition of the matchup in its history, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, and peaked with 15.9 million viewers. The game was also the only quarterfinal game to fall behind average viewership for a game in the first round (Tennessee-Ohio State, 14.7 million viewers). Penn State will face Notre Dame in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. EST, with the winner advancing to the National Championship Game.
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