Despite landing on New Year’s Eve again, the College Football Playoff semifinals proved to be a big ratings success for ESPN.
A massive point of contention in last year’s College Football Playoff was the timing of it. They aired the two semifinal games on New Year’s Eve, which fell on a Thursday, and the ratings were as horrible as everyone expected. Of course, it didn’t help that the two games weren’t close.
This year’s Playoff proved to be an exact replica of last year’s. In the first game, the underdog put up a fight, but ended up losing by double digits. In the second game, a Big Ten team got shut out by over 30 points. And in the end, Clemson and Alabama emerged victorious. However, the TV ratings turned out to be much higher than last year’s Playoff, while also setting a record for their streaming service.
A press release from ESPN revealed all of the figures from last Saturday’s games. Washington vs. Alabama had an overnight rating of 11.5, while an average of 470,000 viewers streamed the game on watchESPN. Ohio State vs. Clemson delivered an overnight rating of 10.5, while an average of 410,000 viewers watched the game online.
It’s a little surprising to see the Alabama game get higher ratings than Ohio State vs. Clemson considering that game was more even on paper. But the fact that it was on late, combined with the score being 24-0 after three quarters, probably contributed to a lot of people turning it off part-way through.
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Overall, the fact that both games reached double digits in ratings despite being blowouts on New Year’s Eve is very encouraging. The Playoff committee felt that as long as the games were on a Saturday, they would still be a success. If next year’s games end up being close, they could end up shattering these figures.
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