Lowest Views Ever for Rose Bowl

[Josh]

Article

[Josh]

Some key numbers from the article:

-Viewership was 10.9 million.
-Previous Rose Bowl low was 13.6 million (2016).
-Still the most-watched non-playoff bowl this year; 2nd was Sugar Bowl at 9.6 million.
-Semifinals drew 21.7 million and 22.4 million, respectively.

[2008 National Champ]

The article is behind a paywall so I can’t check. All I could see was that the previous low was for Stanford-Iowa (Friday, Jan 1, 2016). #5 v #6 but two very small fanbases.

The better comparison would be the 2017 Rose Bowl between SC & Penn State which was also on Monday, Jan 2.

[dystopiamembrane]

This was not a good time slot or match-up for the neutrals.

[Tony (admin)]

Not surprising. The playoff games were two days prior. 

[GameForAnyFuss]

This is why you don’t move a game that’s literally always been played on New Year’s Day. January 2 was a horrible day for a game – a lot of people didn’t have the day off work.

Screw the NFL.

[tedward]

The Rose Bowl has never been played on a Sunday. The fact that this game was played in this time slot has nothing to do with the NFL. 

[GameForAnyFuss]

I stand corrected. But my points remain:

1. Playing the game on January 2 hurt the ratings.
2. Screw the NFL.

[2008 National Champ]

I think you’ve got the order reversed

[MauchDawgUte]

Given the outcome, maybe this was the best case scenario. 😉

[dystopiamembrane]

Bowl games are always a crap-shoot. I hardly ever watch them.

[UteFanatic]

Non-competitve games don’t draw well. Utah sucked and didn’t make it worth watching. Still the highest rated non CFP game. 

[UrbanLiar]

Tied until the 3rd quarter

[UteFanatic]

Yeah, but Utah looked janky and boring. It was an unexciting and unexceptional game and didn’t lure in casual viewers. High-scoring, back-and-forth, close games always do better with TV ratings. That’s a big reason why last year’s Rose Bowl was was so highly viewed. It’s why this year’s CFP games broke viewership records.

 

 

[DataUte]

So games like the Cotton Bowl? Wait, Rose Bowl was still higher. No one knows what the game will be like until it’s being played.

[UteFanatic]

I mean, you can always point to exceptions but in general, high-scoring offensive shootouts get more viewers than boring, low scoring, ugly games.

 

[2008 National Champ]

you’re not wrong. although i think playing games at 2 pm local time on a school day is a bigger factor than the type of offenses featured.

[DataUte]

Kids had school on Jan 2? Man, your district must suck. Bank holiday, Markets closed -it was New Year’s Day observed. My kids don’t go back until Jan 10!

[2008 National Champ]

sorry, maybe that was a local colloquialism. work=school, i.e. can’t go to the bar because it’s a school night.

It may have been a bank/government holiday but not all of us work for those entities. Just like the morning bowls on Jan 2, the audience was reduced because many who would have Jan 1 off don’t have the same luxury.

[DataUte]

I’m not totally sure when they ‘count’ how many viewers there are as people come and go, but the point remains that the Rose Bowl was the most watched game other than CFP. Likely other factors (day, time) than how the game went. Maybe it would have gone up if it was like last year’s back and forth and high scoring affair, but who will ever know. Might have been destined to be the lowest watched Rose Bowl no matter what as it needed 2.7M more viewers to tie the previous low. Maybe no one like Penn St. haha.

[UteFanatic]

That’s the theory I’m going with. America is simply repulsed by an institution that allowed pedophilia and molestation to go on for years. 

[NarfUte]

Still the most watched non-playoff game. The Sugar Bowl was the second least watched sugar bowl in at least 30 years (after 2016, which was the lowest in 25 years) but hey let’s s**t on the rose bowl.

[//r00t4Utes]

Guess I could look it up but, wasn’t last year’s the most watched

Nope guess it got 16.9mil