CFP Championship Games TV Ratings Drop

Alabama’s 45-40 victory over Clemson in the College Football Playoff championship game Monday night on ESPN drew an average of 25.7 million viewers, a 23 percent drop from the 33.4 million who watched last year, when Ohio State beat Oregon.

The NY Times reports the smaller audience could have been because the title game was not the novelty it was last year, when it made its debut; because it was a matchup of two Southern teams; or because Clemson is not as well known to a national audience as Alabama or either of the teams that played last year.

Streaming of the title game on WatchESPN rose 38 percent from last year.

The fall in viewership for the title game came after the semifinals, which were played on New Year’s Eve, took an estimated 40 percent tumble in their audience.

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