They all said "Oh there will be billions of people watching the National Championship College Football game". Easily the highest rated football game ever on cable and ESPN. Maybe?

Nope. Not even close. In fact, three of the four NFL playoff games had more viewers than the National Championship. Not many more people watched the big game then watched the National Semifinals.

"Monday night when Ohio State beat Oregon, 42-20. Indeed, a robust 33.4 million watched the game on ESPN, a cable television record, but the figure fell short of the Nielsen record of 35.6 million set when Texas beat Southern California at the Rose Bowl in the 2006 championship game, which was shown on ABC.

Viewership for the first year of the College Football Playoff, with all its hype, invited comparisons to the audiences for this past weekend’s N.F.L. playoff games.
The Carolina-Seattle game drew 31 million viewers while Baltimore-New England attracted 34 million, Indianapolis-Denver 41.8 million, and Dallas-Green Bay 44.4 million.

The four playoff games averaged 37.8 million viewers, while the three College Football Playoff games averaged 29.8 million. Columbus (51.2) and Portland (37.6) had the first- and fourth-highest ratings in the country. Two other Ohio markets, Dayton and Cleveland, ranked second and third, and Birmingham, Ala., was fifth."

So basically all of Ohio watched and Portland and Alabama. Everyone else watched "The Bachelor" That Chris IS a dreamboat.

Jeanne Hatch/ThinkStock
Jeanne Hatch/ThinkStock
loading...

More From 98.7 WFGR