Papajohns.com Bowl TV Ratings are in.

[TyBull]

More From The Birmingham News

News staff writer

The inaugural Papajohns.com Bowl received a household television rating between 1.4 and 1.66, according to Nielsen and ESPN.

Nielsen reported the East Carolina-South Florida game drew a 1.4 household rating on Dec. 23, the equivalent of 1.53 million homes. The viewerrating by Nielsen was 0.7, or 2.11 million people.

ESPN listed the household rating at 1.66 and did not provide a viewer rating.

The household rating was the lowest of the five bowls owned by ESPN, but the network expressed pleasure with the debut.

"We probably did a little better than what we thought," said Pete Derzis, senior vice president and general manager of ESPN Regional Television. "We're really pleased for a first-year bowl to get that number. Our sponsor will be more than pleased."

ESPN reported its other owned games, the New Mexico (1.80), Las Vegas (1.97), Armed Forces (2.02) and Hawaii (2.53) bowls, recorded better household ratings.

The New Mexico and Armed Forces bowls were played Dec. 23 after Birmingham's noon kickoff.

"It tells me more people were in front of their TV as the day went on," Derzis said. "It speaks to the interest of college football."

The Papajohns.com Bowl also was lower-rated than the Motor City Bowl (1.7) and will likely be one of the lowest this bowl season.

Even so, the Papajohns.com Bowl was higher than ESPN's average major-league baseball rating in 2006 (1.2).

The rating also represents a better start than some bowls that failed in recent years. For example, the Silicon Valley Classic folded after poor attendance and ratings below 1.0 in 2002 and 2003.

A year ago, two bowls had household ratings lower than 1.66 - the Poinsettia Bowl (Colorado State-Navy) at 0.89 and the Meineke Car Care Bowl (South Florida-N.C. State) at 1.52.

The Hawaii Bowl drew a 2.20 last year on the Saturday before Christmas, the date of this year's Papajohns.com Bowl. Unlike Birmingham's game, Hawaii's was played in the evening when more people tend to watch television.

The date of next year's Papajohns.com Bowl will be finalized in future months as ESPN reviews available time windows.

"We felt like having it on a Saturday afternoon was a real plus for us," Derzis said. "If we put it in prime time, the game might have rated better. We'll have a healthy discussion on that before we decide anything."

E-mail: jsolomon@bhamnews.com

[bulls96go]

not good both bowl we were in had poor ratings

we need more name recognition, top 10 rankings ect.

just win and win some more!

get to a better bowl!

what was our Tampa and or FL rating?

[kdawgy_orlando]

If they put in on a DVD I'd buy it.  If I could find some merchandise from it, I'd buy that too.  As it is, I will have to settle for the DVR'ed version here in the house.

I don't wish to get free advertising, but does anyone know where to get stuff beyond the

http://www.papajohnsbowl.com/ website and the post game tees from vendors in Tampa.

I mean the pins, I mean the embroidered shirts and hats - the good stuff.  Anyone?

[crambone]

Next year will be better!!!