The first National Championship under the expanded 12-team format took a bit of a ratings hit, as Ohio State’s victory over Notre Dame averaged 22.1 million viewers, good for a 12% decline compared to the year-ago mark.
Deliveries peaked from 8:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. ET, when 26.1 million fans were tuned in. All told, this year’s game ranks as college football’s fourth least-watched title tilt of the last 10 years.
Last year’s championship game, in which Michigan overpowered Washington by a 34-13 margin, averaged 25.1 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks. In nailing down their first unanimous national title since 1948, the Wolverines laid claim to the 34th most-watched sporting event of 2024. This year’s game is likely to finish somewhere in the low 50s.
The Buckeyes’ 42-20 blowout of the Oregon Ducks in 2015 was the most-watched title tilt of the CFP era, which officially got underway that same year. The inaugural game still stands as the biggest draw of the post-Bowl Championship Series age, averaging 33.9 million viewers. But what a difference a decade makes; on the night the Buckeyes plucked the Ducks, 100 million households subscribed to a cable/satellite/telco-TV service, as the bundle was taken up by 86% of all U.S. TV homes.
As of last fall, the tally of bundled subs was down to 48.2 million homes, which works out to just 40% penetration. Including vMVPD/“skinny bundle” subs, pay-TV’s overall reach is now at 68.5 million homes, with penetration hovering at 54%.
College football isn’t alone in having to deal with the downstream effects of the withering pay-TV universe. Through last weekend’s Divisional Round, deliveries for the NFL playoffs are down 8% from the year-ago period, which works out to an average loss of 2.7 million viewers per window. (Cable’s shrinkage is doing a number on over-the-air TV as well; at last count, fewer than 19 million homes accessed their broadcast feeds via an antenna, which works out to just 15% of all U.S. TV households.)
After closing out the regular season with a 2% ratings dip, the NFL has faced historically tough comps in the postseason. The hardest number to match thus far was last year’s Chiefs-Bills barnburner on CBS, which set a Divisional Round record with an average delivery of 50.4 million viewers. While still strong with an estimated draw of 44.2 million viewers, the TV turnout for Sunday night’s Ravens-Bills snowbrawl was down 12% compared to that year-ago high.
While Ohio State is a perennial ratings draw, even the rich kids from the Big Ten can’t do much to prevent fans from churning away when a shellacking is in the works. During the Buckeyes’ most recent appearance in the championship game (2021), ESPN’s average deliveries fell to a record low 18.7 million viewers—down 32% from the year-ago 27.3 million—as Alabama cruised to a 52-24 victory.
On the other hand, nobody ever scrambles for the remote when an instant classic is underway. Per Nielsen, the 2006 Rose Bowl clash between No. 2 Texas and No. 1 USC remains the most-watched college football game on record, as ABC’s broadcast of that 41-38 nailbiter averaged 35.6 million viewers. Texas’ since-vacated win also coincided with Keith Jackson’s final call from the booth.
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