The early returns are in, and ESPN is boasting that last night’s telecast of Clemson’s dramatic 4th quarter rally to beat Alabama 35-31 was the most-watched event on a cable network since the 2016 championship game between the same two teams.
Almost 25 million watched the game on ESPN with another million or so tuned in to one of their megacast channels (ESPN’s Nielsen-rated networks (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU) and streaming feeds ).
What they don’t bother to mention is that viewership continues to drop year-to-year since ESPN started broadcasting the CFB playoff three years ago.