Buckeyes Now

Ohio State, Alabama Least Watched National Championship Game of All Time

ESPN says 18.7 million viewers watched the CFP National Title Game on Monday night.

Brendan Gulick

Ohio State, Alabama Least Watched National Championship Game of All Time
Ohio State, Alabama Least Watched National Championship Game of All Time /

Despite the fact that arguably the two biggest brands in college football squared off against each other in the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship Game, a much smaller audience than usual paid attention.

ESPN announced on Monday evening that their overnight TV ratings drew an audience of 18.7 million viewers, which makes it the least watched national championship game since 1998 when the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was first instituted.

Remarkably, that audience is lower than each of the CFP semifinal games on New Years Day. The Ohio State-Clemson Sugar Bowl game drew 19.1 million viewers and the Alabama-Notre Dame Rose Bowl game had a viewership of 18.9 million.

That said, sports viewership has decreased dramatically since the beginning of the CoVID-19 pandemic. The NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball all saw a dramatic dip in TV viewership, including the NFL playoffs this past weekend (they were down a whopping 22 percent).

-----

You may also like:

An Uninspiring Ending to an Otherwise Inspiring Ohio State Season

Sarkisian, Jones Manipulate Ohio State on Key Passing Plays

Alabama Beats Ohio State in National Title Game

WATCH: Jeremy Ruckert Makes Incredible One-Handed Catch

EXCLUSIVE: Urban Meyer Joins BuckeyesNow Before National Title Game

-----

Be sure to stay locked into BuckeyesNow all the time!

Join the BuckeyesNow community!
Subscribe to the BuckeyesNow YouTube channel
Follow Brendan on Twitter: @brendangulick22
Follow BuckeyesNow on Twitter: @BuckeyesNowSI
Like and follow BuckeyesNow on Facebook

Published
Brendan Gulick
BRENDAN GULICK

Brendan Gulick is the publisher for BuckeyesNow, Cleveland Baseball Insider and Cavs Insider on the FanNation Network. He is also an accomplished host and play-by-play voice on TV and radio, including on Big Ten Network and NCAA.com where he's called 45 NCAA national championships. Gulick is an update anchor and fill-in host at 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, Ohio.

Home/Football