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The CW scored big with its first bowl game.
The Wyoming Cowboys eked out a win over the Toledo Rockets in the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl on Saturday, delivering 1.1M total viewers, according to Nielsen.
The game, which saw the Cowboys emerge victorious after a field goal as the game clock expired, is now among the CW’s top three telecasts of the past two years in both total viewers and in the 18-49 demographic, of which 320,000 people tuned in. The game peaked with 1.9M viewers in the final quarter hour.
This is quite a big audience for The CW, which rarely cracks a million viewers with its regular programming. While the Group of 5 competition didn’t quite reach the numbers of a Power 5 bowl game, it still shows the power of live sports in a declining broadcast landscape.
The Arizona Bowl is the network’s second strongest college football game to date, after the Florida State vs Northern Alabama game, which saw 1.3M viewers in November. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering that Florida State had a stellar, undefeated regular season that was sure to attract a hefty audience.
According to Nielsen, the Arizona Bowl outpaced the UCLA vs. Oregon men’s basketball game that aired on CBS during the same window by around 41%.
“The CW’s first college bowl game in network history served as the centerpiece of eight straight hours of live sports programming on Saturday alongside our ACC men’s basketball doubleheader, highlighting the power of sports on The CW,” said Brad Schwartz, President of Entertainment, The CW Network. “Live sports continue to set new ratings milestones for The CW, reinforcing the reach of broadcast television and establishing the network as a premiere destination for free, high-quality games that appeal to all sports fans.
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