Capital One Orange Bowl: 6.7 Overnight Gives New Year’s Six Its Best Start; Sets New Year’s Six Streaming Records

- Overnight is up 40% from 2014 Orange Bowl; Second-Best non-Semifinal New Year’s Six Game Ever
- College Football Playoff Semifinals Kick Off Today; ESPN Presents MultiCast Coverage
The Capital One Orange Bowl between Florida State and Michigan (December 30 at 8 p.m. ET) delivered a 6.7 overnight rating on ESPN and streaming added an additional average minute audience of 243,000 with 745,000 unique viewers watching a total of 55,106,000 minutes. ESPN’s overnight for the Seminoles’ victory was an increase of 40% from the 2014 Capital One Orange Bowl (Mississippi State vs. Georgia Tech)*, with a streaming increase of 191%, 190%, and 232%, respectively, in average minute audience, unique viewers and total minutes, respectively, from the same game.
The overnight for the Seminoles’ 33-32 win was the second-best non-Semifinal New Year’s Six game since the inception of the College Football Playoff (nine games). The streaming audience set a new high for non-Semifinal New Year’s Six games in all three metrics and the average minute audience is a top 5 average for non-championship college football games on ESPN overall, including semifinals and regular season.
Additional Orange Bowl highlights:
- New Year’s Six Best Start: The 6.7 overnight for the Orange Bowl is the best overnight for the first game of the New Year’s Six, surpassing the Peach Bowl in 2014 by 103% and in 2015 by 68%
- Peak Overnight: The game peaked at a 7.5 overnight during the final quarter hour (11:45 p.m. – Midnight)
- Best Among 600+ Games: Last night’s overnight rating is the highest for a bowl game on any network – broadcast or cable — that has aired on or before December 30 of that bowl season, besting more than 600 bowl games.
- Local Markets: Birmingham was the top market for the game with a 18.8 local rating. The complete top 10 markets:
Rank | Rating | Market |
1 | 18.8 | Birmingham |
2 | 18.5 | Detroit |
3 | 16.1 | Columbus, OH |
4 | 15.3 | Knoxville |
5 | 13.7 | Jacksonville |
6 | 12.7 | Nashville |
7 | 11.8 | Dayton |
8 | 11.1 | West Palm Beach |
9 | 10.9 | Cleveland |
10 | 10.6 | Orlando |
Today: ESPN’s Exclusive Coverage of the College Football Playoff Semifinals
The College Football Playoff Semifinals — No. 4 Washington vs. No. 1 Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (3 p.m. ET) and No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Clemson in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl (7 p.m.) — will be televised today on ESPN, with five additional presentations on ESPN’s networks as part of a MultiCast for both semifinals. The alternate productions will be available on ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes, with SEC Network airing Finebaum Filmroom during the Huskies-Crimson Tide game as a sixth option. ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes Radio will also broadcast the games. MultiCast presentations are available to stream on the ESPN app and WatchESPN. All information is here.
*2015 Orange Bowl was a College Football Playoff Semifinal; 2014 Orange Bowl was part of the New Year’s Six
Streaming audience includes multiple feeds, including SkyCam and ESPN Deportes
Overnight records go back to 2001
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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolner