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Early ratings for ESPN’s National Championship MegaCast on track to be least-watched title game since start of BCS
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It looks like the Alabama-Ohio State National Championship game on Monday night is on track to have some terrible ratings.
According to Anthony Crupi with Sportico, the game averaged just 18.7 million viewers, which is on track to be the least-watched title game of the CFP or BCS era:
Alabama's 52-24 drubbing of Ohio State on Monday night averaged 18.7 million viewers on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, and while that TV total omits the streaming contribution, the simulcast is on track to be the least-watched college football title tilt of the CFP or BCS era.
— Anthony Crupi (@crupicrupicrupi) January 12, 2021
He also followed up that tweet with the previous low, which was the 2005 Orange Bowl on ABC:
Previous low-water mark was 21.4M for the 2005 Orange Bowl on ABC; USC's 55-19 evisceration of Oklahoma drew 21.4M viewers.
— Anthony Crupi (@crupicrupicrupi) January 12, 2021
The game likely would’ve been watched by more people if it was a lot closer as Alabama was up 35-17 going into halftime. The score didn’t get better in this second half either as the Buckeyes only scored seven points combined in the third and fourth quarters.
Still, the blowout alone doesn’t explain the poor ratings as there have been some other lopsided scores in the CFP era. Injuries to Ohio State also could’ve played a factor as well since Trey Sermon went out early and they were also missing other players going into it due to COVID-19.