• by Wayne Friedman , January 5, 2015

The new college football playoffs and an opening NFL wild card game rocketed ESPN to new levels over the weekend. Although a blowout victory, the first game of the College Football Playoffs, where Oregon easily beat Florida State, posted a strong Nielsen 28.16 million viewers at the Rose Bowl on January 1.

Later that evening, the second semifinal game went a bit better — with 28.27 million viewers, where Ohio State scored an upset victory over top-seeded Alabama. The latter now has the record for the most-watched single U.S. cable television telecast, surpassing ESPN’s 27 million viewers for the 2011 BCS college football championship.

Still, there could be more records to come: ESPN is also airing the final of the first College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, January 12, between Oregon and Ohio State.

Not to be outdone, on Saturday, January 3, ESPN earned another 20 million-plus viewer number for its first NFL playoff game when the Carolina Panthers beat the Arizona Cardinals. For its efforts 21.69 million viewers came to the network — although not its best ever NFL game. A regular season 2009 game, Green Bay-Minnesota, posted 21.83 million total average viewers.

For its regular season, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” averaged 13.35 million viewers for 17 telecasts in 2014.