Sugar Bowl Blowout Still Rates Well For Fox

Despite a ridiculous 52-24 blowout of Cincinnati by Florida and the God of College Football, Tim Tebow (as anointed by Tim’s new agent Thom Brennaman), Fox still did well in the ratings for the Sugar Bowl. It could have been the fact that there was nothing attractive on opposite the game, but people stayed with the Sugar Bowl, even as the points were piled on. Here’s the release from Fox Sports.

SUGAR BOWL AUDIENCE SWEET

New Year’s Night Audience Up +67%

The University of Florida’s rout of the University of Cincinnati in the 2010 SUGAR BOWL on Jan. 1 resulted in an 8.5/15 average household rating/share and 15.5 million viewers according to fast national ratings issued by Nielsen Media Research. That’s up +57% in rating and +67% in audience over last year’s New Year’s night Orange Bowl (5.4/9 – 9.3 mill for Va Tech-Cincinnati), and up +9% in rating and +16% compared to last year’s Sugar Bowl (7.8/13, 13.4 mill for Utah-Alabama) on Friday, Jan. 2.

Despite the blowout score, the Sugar Bowl projects to deliver FOX a dominant win for the night. Based on metered market ratings, FOX not only won the night but beat the combined delivery of the second and third-place networks.  FOX ranked first for the night with an 8.7/15 from 8-11pm. ABC was a distant second with a 4.8/8 for a night that included a Rose Bowl overrun. CBS and NBC were further back at a 3.2/5 and 2.3/4 respectively.

Cincinnati topped all metered markets with a 27.1/42 for the Sugar Bowl. Jacksonville was next with a 26.5/42 followed by Birmingham (25.2/38), a Florida Gator rival. Rounding out the top five were Tampa (23.3/39) and Orlando (20.4/33).

I shut the TV off after the 3rd quarter because I could not take listening to Thom Brennaman’s overgushing on Tebow.