Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl are the two most-watched shows in cable TV history

[soxhop411]

Josh Krulewitz ‏@jksports  17m17 minutes ago
 
Just in! New format. New records. Semifinals were 2 most-watched shows in cable TV history! Sugar: 28.3 mill ppl; Rose: 28.2 mill

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

Wow. The Rose and Sugar were the two highest-rated non-NCG bowls last year and had 18.6M and 16.3M viewers. That's a pretty huge jump.

 

[Mugsy's Jock]

I was hoping the Flavor of Love finale could've hung in there...

 

[bosockboy]

It'll move to 8 teams in no time. Great news.

 

[MentalDisabldLst]

After the extent to which ESPN blasted the airwaves with ads for the games, I'd hope they at least got a return on it.
 
Did we ever find out what made WatchESPN go down?  Was it simply volume?  Because I could definitely believe that given these numbers.  Just a great night of sports-watching, they bought the viewers and then lived up to the hype.

 

[SumnerH]

Wow. The Rose and Sugar were the two highest-rated non-NCG bowls last year and had 18.6M and 16.3M viewers. That's a pretty huge jump.

 
We're talking about an exhibition game vs. a playoff game, it ought to be a big jump.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

 
We're talking about an exhibition game vs. a playoff game, it ought to be a big jump.

 
Yeah, exactly.  Americans like playoff games.  And I expect to see more of them in the future.