The television ratings drop that everyone was expecting with the semifinals of the College Football Playoff being played on New Year's Eve happened.
Ratings for the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl, played at 4 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET Thursday night, were down approximately 40 percent from the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl a year ago. Why? The Rose and Sugar Bowls, the first CFP semifinals, were played on New Year's Day.
Game 5 of the 2015 World Series, won by the Kansas City Royals, posted an 11.7 overnight rating. Game 6 of the NBA Finals, won by the Golden State Warriors, had a 15.9 rating.
The rating for NBC's Sunday Night Football NFL broadcast in week 16 was higher than the CFP ratings too. Sunday's game, a blowout win by the Minnesota Vikings over an eliminated-from-the-playoffs New York Giants team posted an 11.5 overnight rating.
Considering the circumstances, you can say the Orange Bowl rating is pretty good. The game started at 1 p.m. Pacific on a day that isn't officially considered a holiday. The Cotton Bowl rating wasn't helped by Alabama's 21-point third quarter to salt away Michigan State. Clemson won the Orange Bowl and will face the Crimson Tide on Jan. 11 for the national title.
The semifinals are rotated among the "New Year's Six" bowl games – the Rose, Sugar, Peach, Fiesta, Cotton and Orange Bowls. Each of the six bowl games gets a semifinal every three seasons. The 2015 semifinals were moved to New Year's Eve because of the Rose and Sugar Bowls. (For more context on the decision, you can read Dan Wetzel's excellet column about the semifinal scheduling here.)
The two longtime games wanted to keep their spots on New Year's Day. The CFP acquiesced to their request. That means the semifinals (the Fiesta and Peach Bowls) will be held on New Year's Eve again in 2016 before moving to New Year's Day again in 2018 when the Rose and Sugar Bowls start the second rotation.
Will the ratings drop cause the CFP to reconsider the strategy of playing on New Year's Day every three years? Not any time soon. The dates of the semifinals are locked in through the end of the 2025 season.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
