ESPN aired three bowl games after New Year's Day this season (there were none after Jan. 1 last year), and each game was down compared to its December slot last season. The LendingTree Bowl on Monday was the last of the bowl games before the CFP Championship, and Louisiana's win over Miami (OH) on ESPN averaged 1.45 million viewers. That figure is down 14% from the same game last season (Dollar General Bowl then), which aired on a Saturday night in late December. That Troy-Buffalo game averaged 1.69 million. The Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl also had a late date this year, airing this past Saturday as a lead-in for the AFC Wild Card on ESPN. The Tulane-Southern Miss matchup averaged 1.74 million viewers, down 32% from the same game last year, which saw Army-Houston draw 2.56 million viewers on a late Saturday afternoon in late December. This past Friday afternoon, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl averaged 1.36 million viewers, down 1% from Western BYU-Michigan last year, which aired in December on a Friday afternoon (1.37 million).
NOTES: Fox drew its most-watched college hoops game ever on Sunday afternoon, with Xavier-St. John's averaging 2.3 million viewers. That audience was aided by a strong lead-in with the Vikings-Saints NFC Wild Card, which went to overtime....The first PGA Tour event of '20 wrapped up on Sunday night, with Golf Channel averaging 634,000 viewers as Justin Thomas beat out Patrick Reed on the third playoff hole at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. That figure is up 25% from the final round last year in Hawaii, which saw Xander Schauffele beat Gary Woodland by one stroke.
The chart below lists viewership for select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFC Wild Card: Seahawks-Eagles |
1/5
|
NBC
|
4:30-7:45pm
|
19.2
|
35,118
|
| AFC Wild Card: Titans-Patriots |
1/4
|
CBS
|
8:25-11:28pm
|
17.1
|
31,417
|
| NFC Wild Card: Vikings-Saints |
1/5
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:30pm
|
17.4
|
29,932
|
| AFC Wild Card: Texans-Bills |
1/4
|
ABC/
ESPN
|
4:30-7:45pm
|
15.2
|
26,341
|
| Rose Bowl: Oregon-Wisconsin |
1/1
|
ESPN/
ESPN2
|
5:06-8:47pm
|
n/a
|
16,304
|
| Vrbo Citrus Bowl: Alabama-Michigan |
1/1
|
ABC
|
1:01-4:30pm
|
8.0
|
14,003
|
| Allstate Sugar Bowl: Georgia-Baylor |
1/1
|
ESPN/
ESPN2
|
8:57pm-12:26am
|
n/a
|
10,224
|
| Capital One Orange Bowl: Florida-Virginia |
12/30
|
ESPN
|
8:10-11:43pm
|
3.5
|
6,067
|
| Valero Alamo Bowl: Texas-Utah |
12/31
|
ESPN
|
7:30-10:40pm
|
3.1
|
5,608
|
| TaxSlayer Gator Bowl: Tennessee-Indiana |
1/2
|
ESPN
|
7:01-10:45pm
|
2.6
|
4,317
|
| Outback Bowl: Minnesota-Auburn |
1/1
|
ESPN
|
12:58-4:22pm
|
2.4
|
3,985
|
| AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Navy-Kansas State |
12/31
|
ESPN
|
3:45-6:57pm
|
2.1
|
3,326
|
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl:
Arizona State-Florida State |
12/31
|
CBS
|
2:00-5:15pm
|
2.1
|
3,166
|
| Belk Bowl: Kentucky-Virginia Tech |
12/31
|
ESPN
|
12:00-3:24pm
|
1.7
|
2,624
|
| College basketball: St. John's-Xavier |
1/5
|
Fox
|
4:42-6:45pm
|
1.4
|
2,300
|
| Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic: Predators-Stars |
1/1
|
NBC
|
1:00-4:53pm
|
1.3
|
1,974
|
| "Postseason NFL Countdown" |
1/4
|
ESPN
|
3:00-4:20pm
|
n/a
|
1,859
|
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl:
Tulane-Southern Miss |
1/4
|
ESPN
|
11:30am-3:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,735
|
| High school football: All-American Bowl |
1/4
|
NBC
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,132
|
| College basketball: Michigan-Michigan State |
1/5
|
CBS
|
1:30-3:45pm
|
0.7
|
1,062
|
| College basketball: Indiana-Maryland |
1/4
|
Fox
|
12:00-2:15pm
|
0.7
|
1,005
|
PGA Tour: Sentry Tournament of Champions:
third round (early) |
1/4
|
NBC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.7
|
975
|
| College basketball: Georgia-Memphis |
1/4
|
CBS
|
1:00-3:15pm
|
0.7
|
929
|
| College basketball: Villanova-Marquette |
1/4
|
Fox
|
2:15-4:30pm
|
0.5
|
726
|
| Monster Energy Supercross (taped) |
1/5
|
NBC
|
2:30-4:00pm
|
0.2
|
300
|
