Rose Bowl blooms

A classic Rose Bowl game on Monday handed the ESPN family with a total live audience of 16,040,000 viewers, according to Nielsen, to mark the most-watched non-semifinal New Year’s Six game ever. The last-minute USC victory pumped up viewership by 17% from year ago numbers, with the game then played on Jan. 1. Locally, Philadelphia (16.7) set a new market record for the game, while in Pittsburgh (17.0) and Los Angeles (14.9) it was the second highest-rated bowl game ever on ESPN. Meanwhile, the Allstate Sugar Bowl notched a total live audience of 9,713,000 viewers, up 7% from last year’s Sugar Bowl, while the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic drew a total live audience of 5,575,000 viewers. ESPN’s presentation of the New Year’s Six generated an average total live audience of 13,955,000 viewers per game, up 16% from last season’s presentation of the same six games.

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