Military Bowl Draws 2.1 Million Viewers

Jan 2, 2023 - 4:00 PM

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The UCF Knights’ 30-13 loss to the Duke Blue Devils in the Military Bowl was watched by 2.16 million viewers on ESPN, according to ratings compiled by ShowBuzzDaily.com.

It is the second most-watched UCF game of the 2022 season, trailing only the AAC Championship game at Tulane on December 4th (2.6 million), which aired on ABC.

This is the first UCF Football telecast to draw over two million viewers on cable since last year’s Gasparilla Bowl win over Florida (3.2 million). It is the 9th-most watched UCF Bowl game ever and the 6th most-watched non-New Year’s Six UCF Bowl game.

It is the third time in the last four seasons that UCF’s bowl game was not the most-watched UCF football game of the season.

The Military Bowl was UCF’s fourth game of the 2022 season to draw over a million viewers, which is more than the 2021 season (3) and matches the 2020 and 2019 seasons (keep in mind though that the Knights had more games that aired in 2022 on ESPN linear channels than each of the last three years).

It will be interesting to see what UCF’s move to the Big 12 will do for TV viewership numbers. It should result in increased numbers nationally and locally, but it remains to be seen if it gets to the level of the 2018 season, when seven of UCF’s televised games drew over a million viewers — the most-watched Knights football season nationally to date.