Over a five-day period, football fans (college and NFL) feasted on eight playoff games. With a primetime game airing on all five nights. There were two semifinal games for the newly expanded college football playoffs. The CFP was followed by six opening round (a.k.a. wild card) NFL games played over the following three days. In all instances the losing team goes home. Despite an average audience greater than most any other program, the viewing for CFP semifinals and NFL wild card round were both lower than last year’s.
College Football Playoffs: This year the CFP was expanded from four teams to a 12-team format. The increase in games also pushed the schedule back from previous seasons. The national championship game will be played this January 20, compared to January 8 last season.
In the new format the top four seeded teams were granted opening round byes. Surpringly, none of the top four teams won and failed to advance to the next round. The four semifinalists; Penn State, Notre Dame, Texas and Ohio State had been seeded fifth through eighth.
The first semifinal game was the Orange Bowl (Miami) on January 9 between Notre Dame and Penn State. Despite a close score (Notre Dame won 27-24), the game averaged 17.8 million viewers across three ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU). The audience delivery was a sharp decline from the first CFP semifinal game last year played on New Year’s Day (Michigan-Alabama), which averaged 27.8 million viewers played at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl. The viewing had even outpaced last year’s last year’s national championship game of 24.1 million.
The following night Ohio State faced Texas in the Cotton Bowl (Dallas). Ohio State defeated Texas 28-14. For the second game, the audience rebounded, averaging 20.6 million viewers across the three ESPN networks. This was an increase from last year’s second semifinal, also played on New Year’s Day. Last year, the nightcap of the holiday doubleheader (Washington-Texas) averaged 18.8 million viewers.
Sports Media Watch notes it was the most watched Friday night television program since an NFL regular season game played on Christmas 2020. Also, according to Taboola, of all the playoff games collegiate and NFL played over the five-day weekend, online readership was greatest on October 10, the day of the Ohio State-Texas game.
The two semifinal games averaged 19.2 million viewers, compared to last year’s 23.2 million viewers, a year-over-year decline of -17%. According to Front Office Sports, among the reasons for the decline include; last year’s games were both played on New Year’s Day, a holiday traditionally reserved for college bowl games. Also, neither game was played at the Rose Bowl, which has typically delivered the most viewers than any other college bowl game venue.
Heading into the national championship, the top-rated CFP game has been Ohio State’s upset victory over top -ranked Oregon. The quarterfinal game played at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, averaged 21.1 million viewers.
Looking at the tournament to date, there were four opening round games, two each airing on ESPN and TNT Sports (which was sublicensed from ESPN). ESPN televised all four quarterfinal games and both semifinal games.
Average audience by round: 2024-25 CFP Playoffs
Opening Round: 10.6 million
Quarterfinals 16.9 million
Semifinals: 19.2 million
NFL: The NFL postseason games began the day after CFP semifinals had ended. There was a doubleheader on Saturday, a tripleheader on Sunday followed by a Monday night contest.
CBS led off the wild card weekend with an afternoon game on Saturday. The game (Houston-L.A. Chargers) averaged 26.6 million viewers, a slight bump (+2%), from last year’s game in the same time period that aired on NBC. Houston won the game 32-12 to advance.
Similar to last year, an NFL wild card was exclusively streamed on Saturday evening. Last year it was streamed on Peacock which averaged 22.9 million viewers. This season the game was streamed on Amazon’s Prime Video. The game featured intra division rivals Baltimore and Pittsburgh, won by Baltimore 28-14. Using Nielsen data, Prime Video averaged 22.1 million viewers. The audience had peaked at 24.7 million at 9-9:15 p.m. (ET) in the second quarter.
Despite the fall-off from last season’s game on Peacock, the audience surpassed every Thursday Night Football game ever on Prime Video. Previously, the highest average audience had been last month in a regular season game between playoff bound Detroit and Green Bay which averaged 17.3 million viewers. (By comparison, the two games streamed on Christmas Day on Netflix had both averaged over 24 million viewers.)
The early Sunday afternoon game aired on CBS. (This season CBS was the only network to air two wild card games.) The game (Buffalo-Denver) averaged 31.2 million viewers, a slight +2% increase from last year’s game. Buffalo won the game easily 31-7.
The Fox NFC wild card game aired on Sunday in the late afternoon (Philadelphia- Green Bay) attracted 35.9 million viewers, the highest audience of the six games. Philadelphia won the game 22-10. The game was the third most watched NFL this season after two afternoon games on Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, Sportico reports it was a decline from last year’s Green Bay-Dallas game airing in the same time period and same network.
The Sunday night primetime game on NBC/Peacock averaged 29 million viewers (with 26.2 million on NBC). Of the six games over the long weekend, the Washington-Tampa Bay was the most exciting. In the closing minute Washington pulled out a road victory winning 23-20. Despite the close game, viewing was off by nearly -20% compared to last year’s wild card contest (Detroit-L.A. Rams) which averaged 35.8 million viewers. It was also the least watched Sunday night wild card game since the format was expanded to include six games in 2021.
The sixth and final NFL game was the Monday Night Football game between the L.A. Rams and Minnesota. In the wake of wildfires across Los Angeles, the game was relocated to Glendale, Arizona. The last wild card game aired on ABC/ESPN and averaged 25.3 million viewers, a drop-off of -13% from last year.
With such popular teams as Kansas City (which had a bye) and Dallas (which failed to qualify) not playing, along with a number of blow outs; the six wild card games this season had, collectively, averaged 27.8 million viewers, a decline of -8% from last year’s average of 30.2 million viewers.
Up next will be the national championship game on Monday, January 20. The game will feature Notre Dame which last won the title in 1988 and Ohio State which last won in 2014. The game will take place in Atlanta and air on ABC/ESPN. According to online readership from Taboola, fans have expressed far more interest with Notre Dame.
Before the national championship game will be the NFL divisional playoff round. The Saturday afternoon game (kick-off at 4:30 p.m. ET), will air on Fox with the two-time defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City hosting Houston. Later that day at 8 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN Detroit will host Washington. The next day the early game on Sunday (3 p.m. ET) will have Philadelphia hosting the L.A. Rams. The game will air on NBC. The fourth and final game will have Buffalo hosting Baltimore. Kick-off will be at 6:30 p.m. ET and air on CBS.
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