ABC sees big kick
for BCS title game
Averages 30.8 million total viewers, up 15 percent
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jan 11, 2010
With a blowout, ABC earned very good numbers. Just imagine if it had been a close game.
ABC's highly anticipated Bowl Championship Series title game drew 30.8 million total viewers and a 10.5 adults 18-49 rating Thursday night, according to final Nielsen data, despite the fact that Alabama won an easy 37-21 victory after Texas quarterback Colt McCoy went out with an injury.
That was up 15 percent over the 26.8 million who tuned in to last year's title game on Fox and up 11 percent among 18-49s.
In fact, it was the most-watched BCS title game since the last time ABC broadcast it, in 2006, when it hit an all-time high of 35.6 million.
The game had been highly anticipated, as both squads entered undefeated, a rarity in recent years, when many one-loss teams had made the title tilt. The Crimson Tide won their first national title in nearly two decades.
The game was the most-watched program on any network since ABC's Academy Awards in February of last year and generated the highest-rated night for any network this season.
Next year the BCS series will move to ESPN after four years of airing mostly on Fox. During that time, ABC continued to carry the Rose Bowl and the BCS title game every four years.
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