ESPN is crowing about the overnight numbers for the BCS National Championship Game, a 42-14 drubbing of Notre Dame at the hands of Alabama. The overnight was a 15.7 which is 14% higher than last year’s game between Alabama and LSU. The rating peaked in the 9 p.m.-9:15 p.m. quarter hour which was still in the first quarter, but began dropping once it was apparent that Notre Dame was thoroughly outmatched by the Crimson Tide.
Even with the blowout, this is still highest cable television rating in two years dating back to 2011 BCS National Championship Game.
Had the game been closer, you can imagine this number possibly reaching the high teens or even the low 20’s.
Locally, Birmingham, AL led all markets with a 55.1 number. I thought that would be higher to be honest.
Here’s the blurb from ESPN.
ESPN’s 2013 BCS National Championship Rating Up 14 Percent
Five-Game Combined Average for BCS Bowls Grew 6 Percent from 2012
ESPN’sBCS National Championship – No. 2 Alabama’s 42-14 victory over No. 1 Notre Dame on Monday evening — delivered a 15.7 overnight rating, a 14 percent increase from the 2012 game between Alabama and LSU (13.8 overnight rating), according to Nielsen. This metered-market rating – the highest for all of cable television in two years, since the January 2011 BCS National Championship on ESPN, helped drive the network’s five-game BCS average to a 9.0 metered market rating. That represents a 6 percent increase over a year ago (8.5 for the five-game average). Additionally, the game was the highest-rated program on Monday, helping ESPN win the night among all networks.
In terms of local markets, the BCS National Championship was the third highest-rated ESPN bowl game telecast on record in Birmingham with a 55.1 rating. Overall, 17 different markets set local ratings records by delivering the highest rating ever for a bowl game on ESPN (records go back to 2000). Last night’s top five rated markets were Birmingham, New Orleans, Knoxville, Nashville and Atlanta. National ratings information, including television and online viewership should be available later today.
That is all.
