The numbers are in for the New Years Six, and Penn State’s victory in the Rose Bowl led the way outside of the College Football Playoff games. ESPN released the viewing numbers for its New Years Six broadcasts, and the Rose Bowl was the most-watched non-playoff game with over 10 million viewers.
According to a press release from ESPN, the Rose Bowl broadcast on Jan. 2 drew 10,187,000 viewers. It was the only bowl game outside of the College Football Playoff semifinal matchups to draw at least 10 million viewers.
ESPN’s New Years Eve broadcasts of the Peach Bowl between Georgia and Ohio State and the Fiesta Bowl between TCU and Michigan each drew over 20 million viewers on December 31. The Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Kansas State brought in 9.1 million viewers and had the best draw for a noon game leading into the College Football Playoff semifinals to date.
ESPN claims this year to be the most-most watched New Year’s Six in the past three years. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is the first New Years Six in that span to include Penn State, but that is just one of the reasons why the numbers went up of course. The best semifinal pairing of games and finishes in the history of the College Football Playoff gave a big boost to the semifinal ratings, along with the games actually being played on a Saturday.
Here are the viewership numbers for the New Years Six games as shared by ESPN;
- Peach Bowl (CFB Playoff semifinal) – 22,446,000 viewers
- Fiesta Bowl (CFB Playoff semifinal) – 21,701,000
- Rose Bowl – 10,187,000
- Sugar Bowl – 9,135,000
- Orange Bowl – 8,689,000
- Cotton Bowl – 4,165,000
The Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl did very well despite not having a playoff matchup. Each game also benefitted from having a couple of teams in Penn State (Rose Bowl) and Alabama (Sugar Bowl) that are traditionally solid TV draws to start with.
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