Georgia’s national championship blowout of TCU leads to record-low TV ratings

Georgia’s 65-7 dump-trucking of of TCU in Monday night’s national championship game finished off the 2022 season, but it also led to a record-low number of viewers.

ESPN announced that the game drew 17.2 million viewers, a record-low for the championship game in the College Football Playoff era. The game 2 years ago when Alabama beat Ohio State brought in 18.7 million and was the least-watched college football title game at the time since 2004.

Once Georgia built a big early lead, non-partisan fans around the country likely went to bed early. Georgia was up by 10 points at the end of the first quarter and the Bulldogs scored on 10 of their 12 possessions, as the game was hardly in doubt after the first quarter. That’s about the time when many viewers checked out.

Viewership peaked in the 8:30 p.m. quarter hour at 22.365 million viewers, but that’s when it plummeted quickly.

The 3-game @CFBPlayoff was up 9% year-over-year, averaging 20.6 million viewers across the @CFAPeachBowl, @Fiesta_Bowl & the #NationalChampionship

Monday night’s finale featuring @TCUFootball & @GeorgiaFootball registered 17.2 million viewers#CFBPlayoff ? by @ESPNImages pic.twitter.com/jJZWBv2377

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) January 10, 2023

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

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.