Good morning and Happy New Year! This is Leadoff, the early buzz in Atlanta sports.
Almost 20 million people across the country watched the final college football game played in the Georgia Dome.
Alabama’s victory over Washington in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Saturday afternoon drew a live viewing audience (TV plus streaming) of 19,814,000, according to ESPN, which televised the game.
That was up 24 percent from the audience for last season’s early College Football Playoff semifinal game (Clemson vs. Oklahoma), ESPN said.
This season’s other semifinal bowl — Clemson’s rout of Ohio State in Saturday night’s Fiesta Bowl — delivered a total live audience of 19,646,000 viewers, up 4 percent from last season’s late semifinal (Alabama vs. Michigan State).
On TV only, ESPN and ESPN2, the Peach Bowl averaged 19.34 million viewers and the Fiesta averaged 19.24 million.
While viewership nationally for the semifinals was up from last season, when the New Year’s Eve semis fell on a Thursday, the audiences remained significantly smaller than in the 3-year-old playoff’s inaugural season, when the semis were played on New Year’s Day.
* * *
In the Atlanta TV market, the Peach Bowl posted a 20.5 Nielsen rating, meaning 20.5 percent of the market's TV households watched Alabama's victory on average. That was the fifth highest rating among the nation's metered markets.
The Fiesta Bowl drew an 18.2 rating in Atlanta, the nation’s seventh highest.
PEACH BOWL RATINGS
The top 10 TV markets in the Nielsen ratings for the College Football Playoff semifinal between Alabama and Washington on ESPN in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl:
1. Birmingham, Ala., 42.1
2. Columbus, Ohio, 23.9
3. Knoxville, Tenn., 22.2
4. Seattle, 21.2
5. Atlanta, 20.5
6. Greenville, S.C., 20.4
7. Nashville, Tenn., 19.5
8. Dayton, Ohio, 18.4
9 Cleveland, 17.4
10. Memphis, Tenn., 17.0
FIESTA BOWL RATINGS
The top 10 TV markets in the Nielsen ratings for the College Football Playoff semifinal between Clemson and Ohio State on ESPN in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl:
1. Columbus, Ohio, 35.1
2. Birmingham, Ala., 31.3
3. Greenville, S.C., 27.9
4. Dayton, Ohio, 27.6
5. Knoxville, Tenn., 21.0
6. Cleveland, 20.6
7. Atlanta, 18.2
8. Nashville, Tenn., 17.7
9. Cincinnati, 16.8
10. Jacksonville, Fla., 15.2
(Note: The rating is the percentage of the market’s TV households tuned in on average.)
* * *
Clemson as a 6-point underdog in college football's national championship game is enticing to the public, according to Bovada, which passed along this insight Monday from sports book manager Kevin Bradley:
“Last year, 75% of the public was backing Alabama, coming off a shutout victory (over) Michigan State, to cover over Clemson in the College Football Playoff Championship Game. This year, it was Clemson shutting out a Big 10 team, beating Ohio State 31-0, and just like last year the public is backing the team coming off of the dominating victory, as Clemson is seeing 65% of the action at +6. People are also jumping all over the moneyline with Clemson.”
Leadoff appears on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
About the Author
