ESPN's broadcast of the inaugural College Football National Championship game ran up the score in the prime-time network television show ratings on Monday night.
The sports network had a big 18.5 overnight rating for its broadcast of the Ohio State Buckeyes-Oregon Ducks game, the highest metered market rating in ESPN history. The broadcast was also up 21% from last year's game between Florida State and Auburn.
Meanwhile, ABC topped network television in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic, with a rating of 1.6, according to Nielsen.
However, the network's "The Bachelor" fell 23% from last week's premiere with a rating of 1.7 in the key demo. It tied for third in the demo with NBC's "The Apprentice," and rounded out the top five most-watched programs overall, with about 6.4 million viewers.
Also on the network, "Castle" averaged 6.8 million viewers and a had rating of 1.4 in the key demo, down 7% from its most original episode on Dec. 8.
The network ended up second to CBS in overall viewers, drawing in 6.5 million people for its two programs.
CBS aired all reruns except for "Mike & Molly," which was No. 1 in the key demo, with a rating of 2.1. The sitcom was also the second-most-watched program of the night, with 9.2 million viewers.
A repeat of "The Big Bang Theory," which aired before "Mike & Molly," was the most-watched program of the night, with 10 million viewers.
The network averaged 7.2 million viewers. It posted a rating of 1.4 in the key demo, tying it with NBC for second in the advertiser-desired category.
On NBC, "The Apprentice" averaged 5.8 million viewers. It was down 15% from last week with a 1.7 rating in the key demo.
"State of Affairs" pulled in 3.6 million viewers. It was down about 20% from last week, with a rating of 0.8 in the key demo.
Fox aired encores of "Empire" and "Sleepy Hollow." The CW broadcast reruns of "Jane the Virgin."
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