With highly-regarded Alabama taking on high-profile Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship Monday, a cable ratings record seemed inevitable. All the teams needed to do was show up and compete.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Alabama broke the game open early, and its dominant performance prevented viewership from spiking the way it ideally would have. As a result, the game only ranks as the second-most-watched cable telecast of all-time.<\/p>\n
Though a label like that–and an average audience of 26.4 million viewers–is impressive, when one considers the marquee value of the game, the failure to set the record is certainly disappointing.<\/p>\n
The viewership total and 17.5 cable coverage rating both fell short of the marks set by the nail-biting 2011 game between Auburn and Oregon (17.8 coverage rating, 27.3 million viewers).<\/p>\n
The relative competitive nature of the games was the obvious difference-maker.<\/p>\n
The first half of Monday’s matchup drew an impressive 20.4 rating, compared to a 17.9 for the Auburn-Oregon matchup. This time, however, the audience significantly faded for the second half; the close 2011 game kept viewers hooked as it progressed.<\/p>\n
This year’s game did, however, best the marks set by the 2012 game between Alabama and LSU. That 21-0 shutout drew a 16.2 rating and 24.2 million viewers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"adace-sponsor":[],"yoast_head":"\n