College Football Playoff Semifinals Hit Five-Year High With 21.7M Viewers For ESPN Networks

Denise Petski
·1 min read

The 2022 College Football Playoff semifinals, which will send Georgia and TCU to the national championship, scored for ESPN networks.

Saturday’s Georgia-Ohio State CFP semifinal at the Peach Bowl averaged 22.1 million viewers on ESPN networks, according to ESPN and Nielsen fast-nationals, marking the most-watched CFP semifinal since the Georgia-Oklahoma Rose Bowl five years ago (26.9M).

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Viewership peaked at 23.9 million viewers from 9:45-10 PM ET, with the Bulldogs winning shortly before midnight ET. The game was the most-watched primetime semifinal since year one, and the fourth-best semifinal of the CFP era.

Earlier Saturday, the TCU-Michigan Fiesta Bowl averaged 21.4 million viewers, also the highest for an early semifinal since the Georgia-Oklahoma Rose Bowl in 2018. Viewership for the Horned Frogs win peaked at 26.4 million from 7:45 – 8 PM ET. It was the third-most-watched afternoon semifinal and sixth best semifinal game of the CFP era.

The two semifinals averaged 21.7 million viewers, up 28% from last year and the highest since 2018. No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 TCU will face off January 9 in the College Football Championship game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA.

In other non-playoff bowls, the Alabama-Kansas State Sugar Bowl on Saturday drew 9 million viewers —down from last year’s Sugar Bowl between Baylor and Mississippi, which aired in primetime on New Year’s Day, drawing 9.8 million.

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