INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The TCU-Georgia national championship game went "0 to 100" real quick, which drove fans away from tuning into the game, according to TV viewership numbers.
The 2023 CFP National Championship between the Horned Frogs and Bulldogs averaged 17.223 million viewers across its ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU broadcasts, making it the lowest-viewed college football national championship game ever, according to Sports Business Journal's Austin Karp.
Here is a breakdown of the numbers:
- ESPN: 16.626 million
- ESPN2 (Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show): 483,000
- ESPNU: 114,000
Georgia's title game win over TCU was the biggest blowout in college football history (58 points). In fact, it was the worst loss in any bowl game ever. In the middle of the game, "Damn TCU" was trending on Twitter, with people tweeting out varying levels of savage TCU trash talk.
Monday's TV viewership numbers starkly contrast with the CFP semifinals, which were reportedly the highest-viewed semifinal games in five years, according to Yahoo! Sports.
ESPN2's megacast with The Pat McAfee Show, however, seems to have been a massive success. The alternate viewing option, which featured the former NFL punter and his co-hosts from the daily sports show on YouTube, drew a 206% increase compared to the title game megacast from the year prior, Karp reported.
On Tuesday, the Houston Sports Authority announced that NRG Stadium in Houston would be the host of the 2024 CFP National Championship game.
The 2024 CFP National Championship is scheduled for Jan. 8, 2024, the final year of the current four-team playoff format. The College Football Playoff is set to expand to a 12-team bracket the following season.
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