Despite presenting two of the biggest brands in college football, the national championship game on Monday night did not attract as large a TV audience as usual.
Alabama’s 52-24 victory over Ohio drew an audience of 18.7 million viewers, the lowest for any national championship game since the national championship game began with the Bowl Championship Series in 1998.
The national championship game also attracted less audience than the Ohio State Sugar Bowl victory over Clemson (19.1 million) and the Alabama Rose Bowl over Notre Dame (18.9 million), although it was the sporting event last year’s most watched non-NFL. than college football semifinals.
Monday night’s clash between #GoBuckeyes AND #RollTide recorded 18.7 million viewers across ESPN’s MegaCast coverage
O @CFBPlayoff semifinals and championships are the best cable broadcasts and the best non-NFL sporting events across all networks since 2020 #National Championship pic.twitter.com/IEqUpMj2bx
– ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) January 12, 2021
Previously, the least-watched national championship game took place at the end of the 2004 season, when the USC eliminated Oklahoma 55 to 19 in the season’s final game.
The lower-than-normal TV ratings on Monday night probably resulted from a combination of factors. TV ratings dropped in all sports during the COVID-19 pandemic – for example, ratings for the NFL playoff wild card round dropped 22% last weekend – and the uneven nature of Monday’s game certainly Did not help. And while Ohio and Alabama are typically large audience draws because of their huge fan base, the TV audience can be an indicator of the national tiredness of watching these teams at the CFP.
The semifinals with higher ratings than the national championship game probably resulted in part of the games being played on a holiday – New Year’s Day – rather than Monday night, but previous national championship games dating from BCS were also played on Mondays.