CFB world reacts to terrible championship game ratings

When the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes and the TCU Horned Frogs defeated the Michigan Wolverines in the College Football Playoff semifinals, many people around the college football world started predicting relatively low ratings for the national championship game. It turns out they were correct.

Given that the Bulldogs were defending champions and TCU was not a national name, the expectation from many was that audiences wouldn’t be as excited to tune in as they had in years past. Over at Awful Announcing, predictions for game ratings ranged between 19 and 29 million. All of those predictions shot way too high.

ESPN announced Tuesday that the championship game garnered an audience of 17.2 million people, which is extremely low for a CFP national title game.

Per Awful Announcing, that’s a record-low for the game during the BCS and CFP era.

According to Sports TV Ratings, the audience peaked around 8:30, around the time Georgia extended its lead to 24-7 and it became clear to many that the Horned Frogs were simply overmatched.

TCU/Georgia CFP Championship quarter hours (sum of ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU):

8P ET: 20.33M
8:15: 21.85M
8:30: 22.365M
8:45: 22.18M
9:00: 20.795M
9:15: 16.226M
9:30: 15.885M
9:45: 16.24M
10:00P: 14.95M
10:15: 13.34M
10:30: 11.8M
10:45: 10.3M

— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) January 10, 2023

The news that the game garnered such low ratings earned some interesting reactions from the college football world.

“As expected, not a lot of people — relatively speaking —- watched the 65-7 game,” said AP’s Ralph Russo.

“The blowout absolutely tanked the rating. Ouch,” said Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo.

“At 10:45 … I’m surprised 10 million forgot to turn off the TV or change the channel,” said sports anchor Harold R. Kuntz.

[Awful Announcing, ESPN, Sports TV Ratings]