College Football Playoff semifinals draw best viewership since 2018

The semifinals of the 2023 College Football Playoff provided a pair of enthralling games, and viewers were mostly enraptured.

The two games averaged 22.600 million viewers, which is the best average viewership for a pair of semifinals since 2018, which averaged 24.590 million viewers. Additionally, it’s the third-best viewership for the semifinals in the decade the Playoff has existed, also behind the debut year in 2015.

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The two games delivered vastly different viewership. The Michigan-Alabama Rose Bowl averaged 27.2 million viewers across the MegaCast, which was the third-best semifinal ever (behind the two from 2015). However, the late-starting (and late-ending) Sugar Bowl between Washington and Texas slipped to 18.4 million viewers. Of the 20 semifinals, it ranked 15th.

With the semifinals falling on New Year’s Day, the viewership spike wasn’t a surprise. The two most-watched semifinal years, 2015 and 2018, both took place on New Year’s Day. Even in the dark days of the pandemic, the 2021 semis were on New Year’s Day and didn’t crater like many other sporting events did, ranking ahead of three other semifinals and barely behind another two.

The quality of the two games surely had an impact on the viewership as well. Both came down to the final play, and the largest lead in either game was 13 points.

Heading into the National Championship on Monday, ESPN should be reasonably confident of drawing strong viewership. It’s been a strong season for college football across most networks, bowl season as a whole has gone reasonably well, and the lure of two programs in the title game for the first time could break much of the fatigue we’ve seen over the years with schools like Alabama, Clemson, and Georgia as stalwarts in the National Championship. Additionally, it’s a matchup of two unbeaten teams, providing even more of a hook.

Then again, there was optimism a year ago when the two New Year’s Eve semifinals averaged 22.061 million viewers, the third-best average for a pair of semifinals ever and the best mark for semifinals not airing on New Year’s Eve. Georgia spoiled the party by hanging 65 on TCU and taking a 31-point lead at halftime, destroying any and all optimism for a strong finish to the year.

If Washington and Michigan keep it close, this year’s title game should bring in a number everyone at ESPN is happy with. Could it hit 28 million, a mark not seen by the Playoff since Alabama’s overtime win over Georgia in 2018? ESPN will clearly hope so.

[Sports Media Watch, Sports Business Journal]