College Football Playoff ratings drop 7% as NFL contests impact viewership

The first round of the College Football Playoff last weekend averaged 9.9 million viewers abc, espn, tntTBS and truTV, according to ESPN and Nielsen. This is a decline of 7% from last year.

A major reason for the decline was that the final game, James Madison vs. Oregon, was on TNT, TBS and TruTV and not ABC and ESPN, as well as a nfl Sports in prime time.

The Chicago Bears’ 22–16 overtime win over the Green Bay Packers on Fox averaged 21.3 million viewers, while Oregon’s 51–34 win over James Madison averaged 4.4 million viewers. Last year the Ohio State-Tennessee game on ABC/ESPN averaged 14.3 million, also not as many as the NFL game.

The most watched CFP game was AlabamaA 34-24 comeback win over Oklahoma, which averaged 14.9 million Friday night on ABC/ESPN. Not only was the CFP first-round game the most watched game in the expanded 12-team field in two years, but it was the fifth most watched game of the season. Six of the top 20 most watched games this year feature Alabama.

Last year’s CFP opener between Notre Dame and Indiana averaged 13.4 million.

Miami’s 10–7 win over Texas A&M averaged 14.8 million on ABC/ESPN on Saturday afternoon and more than double the 6.4 million that tuned in for the SMU-Penn State game in the same time slot on TNT/TBS and TruTV.

The Hurricanes’ win was the sixth most watched game of the season.

Ole Miss’ 41–10 defeat of Tulane averaged 6.2 million on TNT/TBS and TruTV, down from the 8.6 million average for the same time slot and network for last year’s Texas–Clemson game.

The Saturday afternoon CFP game has featured competition from the NFL in each of the last two years. Philadelphia’s 29–18 victory over Washington on Fox averaged 15.5 million viewers, the same audience that tuned in for last year’s game between Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

ESPN sublicenses CFP games to TNT/TBS and TruTV. Again next year, in addition to the two first-round games, the Warner Bros. Discovery Channel will feature two quarterfinal and one semifinal game.

Last year’s four quarterfinal matchups averaged 16.9 million on ESPN and ESPN2.

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