CFP Ratings Top 10M Average, But NFL Easily Wins Head-to-Head

Despite lopsided double-digit victories across all four first-round College Football Playoff games, the debut of on-campus Playoff matchups averaged 10.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings.

ESPN’s pair of primetime broadcasts this weekend easily drew more viewers than the two Saturday afternoon games on TNT Sports:

• Ohio State 42, Tennessee 17: 14.3 million (8 p.m. Saturday, ESPN)
• Notre Dame 27, Indiana 17: 13.4 million (8 p.m. Friday, ESPN)
• Texas 38, Clemson 24: 8.6 million (noon Saturday, TNT Sports)
• Penn State 38, SMU 10: 6.4 million (4 p.m. Saturday, TNT Sports)

ESPN’s games were given the “megacast” treatment, with various feeds also airing on ABC, ESPN2 and other digital platforms. TNT Sports simulcast its games across TNT, TBS, TruTV, and Max.

While no game topped the audience of 16.6 million for the Georgia-Texas SEC championship game on ABC, the 10.6 million viewership average is higher than all but four other college football game broadcasts so far this season, including conference title games.

That figure also topped last season’s non-CFP New Year’s Six bowl games, which averaged 8.15 million viewers on ESPN platforms. Last season’s CFP semifinals averaged 23.2 million viewers, also on ESPN platforms. Those games were Michigan-Alabama in the Rose Bowl and Washington-Texas in the Sugar Bowl.

NFL Proved to Be Tough Competition for CFP

On Saturday afternoon, the two TNT Sports CFP games had competition from the NFL. 

Viewership numbers for the 27–19 Chiefs win over the Texans on NBC and the 34–17 Ravens victory over the Steelers on Fox significantly outpaced their CFP counterparts.

Texans-Chiefs averaged 15.5 million viewers on NBC, largely at the same time SMU-Penn State drew an audience of 6.4 million on TNT Sports. Fox got 15.4 million viewers for Steelers-Ravens, which coincided with Clemson-Texas (8.6 million viewers, TNT Sports).

The two NFL games also drew more viewers than both primetime ESPN games, although by a much smaller margin.

Still, the deal for TNT Sports to sublicense CFP games from ESPN seems to be a success for parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, as Clemson-Texas was the most-watched sports or entertainment program to air in December on TNT, TBS or truTV in 23 years.