TV Ratings: Michigan-Washington CFP Title Game Drew 25M Viewers

Michigan’s 34-13 win over Washington on Monday night drew the best CFP National Championship audience since 2020, Sports Business Journal reports.

ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU combined for just over 25 million viewers for the game, up 45% from last year’s record-low figure for Georgia-TCU (17.2 million). Among the 10 CFP title games since 2015, this year ranks No. 7.

The main telecast on ESPN drew 24.3 million, while a Pat McAfee-led Field Pass on ESPN2 drew 596,000 viewers and the Command Center on ESPNU drew 150,000. McAfee was up 23% from his Field Pass alternate telecast last season and good enough for the CFP title game’s fourth-best alternate telecast to date (the best was ESPN2 in 2018 for Alabama-Georgia with 1 million viewers for a Homers Telecast).

Monday night’s game peaked at 28 million viewers in the 9pm ET quarter hour. Detroit led all markets with a 26.9 local rating, followed by Seattle-Tacoma with a 20.7. Rounding out the top five were Columbus (19.7 in the home market for the Wolverines’ archrival), Atlanta (14.7) and Austin (13.6).

After 10 editions of the game since 2015, the CFP National Championship has averaged 24.8 million viewers across ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU. From 1999-2014, the 16 BCS National Championships aired on either ESPN, ABC or Fox, averaging 26.7 million viewers.

Also...StubHub said that Monday night’s CFP title game was its second-best national championship for ticket sales in the company’s history, trailing only 2018’s Alabama-Georgia tilt. Final sales are 83% higher than last year’s Georgia-TCU matchup.