RATINGS: College Football Playoff Semifinals Average 19 Million Viewers, ESPN's Third-Most Watched Day on Record

This year's COLLEGE FOOTBALL Playoff Semifinals started the New Year off strong, registering 19 million average viewers between the two matchups, roughly in line with last year's CFP Semifinals. The CFP Semifinal at the ROSE BOWL GAME Presented by Capital One (Alabama vs. Notre Dame: 18,893,000) and the CFP Semifinal at the Allstate SUGAR BOWL (Clemson vs. Ohio State: 19,149,000) are the top telecasts on cable since the 2020 CFP National Championship Game, making the semifinal round the best non-NFL sporting event across any network since LSU's victory in the 2020 national title game. Additionally, the ROSE BOWL GAME was up 8 percent year-over-year compared to the early semifinal in 2020.

Friday, Jan. 1 was ESPN's third-most watched day ever. One quarter of all people watching television on New Year's Day were watching the CFP Semifinals during the game windows. That share of the TV audience was up 5 percent from the last time the Semis aired on New Year's Day, and ranks as the third-best Semifinal TV share of the CFP Era. In total, the CFP Semifinals reached 40.8 million viewers across ESPN platforms.

Peach Bowl and ORANGE BOWL Each See Rise in Viewership from 2020 Editions

The Chick-fil-A PEACH BOWL (Georgia vs. Cincinnati) drew 8,727,000 viewers across all MegaCast feeds, the most-viewed NY6 Bowl Game featuring a Group of 5 team of the CFP Era, up 39 percent from last year's comparable semifinal lead-in game (Memphis-Penn State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic) and up 3 percent from the PEACH BOWL in Year 4 (UCF-Auburn), which led into the CFP Semis on New Year's Day.

The Capital One ORANGE BOWL (Texas A&M vs. UNC) averaged 7,577,000 viewers, up 25 percent from last year's ORANGE BOWL (Florida vs. Virginia).