The culmination of college football's first playoff paid off big for ESPN. Very big.
The network announced Tuesday morning that Ohio State's win over Oregon generated an 18.5 overnight rating, ESPN's highest metered market rating ever. The previous record was a 16.1 rating for the 2011 BCS national championship game between Auburn and Oregon. Last year's Florida State-Auburn BCS title game drew a 15.3 overnight.
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And later Tuesday, ESPN's Josh Krulewitz reported that the championship game was cable's biggest audience. Period.
No show on any network in history of cable had a bigger audience than last night's College Football Playoff Champ Game (33.4 million)
— Josh Krulewitz (@jksports) January 13, 2015It's new & its successful. The College Football Playoff Champ Game & Semis are now the most-watched 3 shows in history of Cable TV
— Josh Krulewitz (@jksports) January 13, 2015Not surprisingly, the biggest local ratings Monday came in the markets most invested in the game. Columbus, Ohio, led the way with a whopping 51.2 rating, followed by Dayton (43.8), Cleveland (41.3), Portland (37.6), Birmingham (36.1) and Cincinnati (26.5).