PalsPal":1za6uyaq said:
New Years eve was a stupid decision, and people didn't give MSU much of a chance. Also, the early game started when a lot of people were still at work.
Dumb New Year's Scheduling Decision Plunges Ratings for ESPN's College Football Playoff
It looked like an odd decision when it was first announced. So odd to the point where I had to triple-check it…
We're talking, of course, about the decision to broadcast college football's version of the Final Four on New Year's Eve starting at 4:00 PM EST. The reason for the confusion is obvious: Americans either tend to go out on New Year's Eve or host parties at their homes or apartments. The social aspect alone is why networks stay away from broadcasting major sporting events and stay away from weekend nights in general. In this case, New Year's Eve is a weekend night on steroids from a social perspective, and to put a major ratings draw like the college football playoff — on a night with both the "weekend" aspect and unique competition challenging it (New Year's Eve countdown broadcasts) was not only an odd one, but profoundly stupid.
So when the numbers came in for both Clemson-Oklahoma and Michigan State-Alabama from New Year's Eve, the result wasn't all that surprising. Compared to last year, ratings for this year's semifinal were down a stunning 36.8 percent. At the time, the 2014 semifinals were the most-watched broadcasts in cable television history (until the Oregon-Ohio State championship the following week), clocking in with more than 28 million viewers. For context, the first two GOP debates on Fox and CNN — which were record-breaking for each network — drew 24 and 23 million viewers, respectively.
So why New Year's Eve? Well, for whatever reason, the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) commissioners who crafted the College Football Playoff four years ago expressed a desire to start a new tradition of playing the semis on New Year's Eve twice every three years throughout its 12-year ESPN contract. Last year's games were not played on New Year's Eve, hence the need to start fulfilling that part of the contract this season. As for playing the games on the more traditional New Year's Day itself, that day is locked in by the Rose and Sugar Bowls, whose rights — signed before the college football playoff was created — are also carried by ESPN. Solution? Play the semifinals today (Saturday, January 2). It may technically be a weekend, but given all the holiday traveling and socializing of the past two weeks, it will likely behave more like a weekday night when it comes to stay-at-home viewership.
And yes, it's good to be in the college football business these days as ESPN will pay $7.3 billion to the major college conferences over the span of the deals. Of course, the most important part of every broadcast — the players themselves — don't see a dime despite all the time, effort and risk, but that's a column for another time.
There's a reason sporting events aren't held on nights when Americans are off from work the following day.
Exhibit A in 2016 in the fumble that sacked ESPN and college football commissioners in their ill-conceived decision to put one of the biggest ratings giants of the year on a night the least amount of people are actually watching television.
