The four games of the first round of the College Football Playoff averaged 10.6 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS and truTV (plus streaming) on Friday and Saturday.
Being the first year of the expanded CFP, there are no comps to a prior first round. But the average for the four games in this year’s first round was 31% higher than the average for the four non-semifinal games within the “New Year’s Six” last season (Cotton, Peach, Orange, Fiesta). None of those games had playoff implications, and were played on Dec. 29, 2023, Dec. 30, 2023 and Jan. 1 of this year (all on ESPN with no simulcasts or alt-casts for an average of 8.1 million viewers).
The top game from the first round was easily Ohio State-Penn State on Saturday in primetime with 14.3 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. That’s the second-best CFB game this season, behind only the 16.6 million viewers for the Georgia-Texas SEC Championship on ABC/ESPN on Dec. 7. On Friday night, Notre Dame-Indiana drew 13.4 million viewers, which is the third-best CFB game this season after passing the 13.2 million for the first UGA-Texas meeting back on Oct. 19 on ABC.
On Saturday afternoon, up against NFL action on NBC, Texas’ win over Clemson averaged 8.6 million viewers across TNT, TBS and truTV (includes streaming on Max). That figure is the best on record for a college football game on TNT Sports networks, topping the 1996 CarQuest Bowl, and is also the company’s best sports audience ever in December. Earlier on Saturday, up against NFL action on Fox, the Penn State-SMU first round game drew 6.4 million viewers (same three networks), which is TNT Sports’ second-best CFB audience on record.
As a reference point: none of the first-round games came close to averaging what a CFP semifinal drew dating back to the start of the playoff for the 2014-2015 season. The lowest semifinal game under the prior format was 15.7 million on ESPN/ESPN2 for Clemson-Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl semi back in 2016-2016 season.
The average for the four CFP first round games also, as expected, did not draw better than the averages for any of the New Year’s Six bowl games since the start of the CFP system. The low under that setup was just under 11 million viewers during the pandemic season of 2020-21.
For a college basketball comparison, the four games of the CFP first round were slightly higher than what the four games of the men’s Elite 8 drew in March Madness last season across TBS and CBS (10.6 million for CFP vs. 10.4 million for college hoops regional finals).
Figures for the NFL games that went up against the CFP on Saturday afternoon will be available on Tuesday, but early figures showed that both the Fox and NBC telecasts easily beat all CFP first round games.
Start your morning with Buzzcast with Austin Karp: How did the First Round of the CFP perform? The PGA of America taps a new leader, NASCAR is non-committal about the future of Chicago street racing and JuJu Watkins vs. Paige Bueckers lives up to the hype.
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