In its first year carrying the season-ending Bowl Championship Series, ESPN scored the third-most-watched program ever on cable, likely leading up to the most-watched game ever on Jan. 10, when Auburn and Oregon play for the national championship.

The Rose Bowl averaged 20.6 million total viewers for a close contest between Wisconsin and TCU, which remained undefeated with a 21-19 victory despite a final surge by the Badgers.

In cable history, that was behind only the 21.8 million who watched the 2009 Green Bay Packers-Minnesota Vikings "Monday Night Football" game and the 21.4 million who tuned in for another 2009 "MNF" game, between the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints.

ESPN averaged an 11.3 household rating for the game, which kicked off at 4:05 p.m.

Not surprisingly, when judged by broadcast standards, ESPN's performance was less impressive. The Rose Bowl was down 14 percent from last year, when an audience of 24 million watched Ohio State and Oregon on ABC.

ESPN won rights to the BCS starting this year, after the series was carried by Fox the past few years. It originated on ABC, which did keep rights to the Rose Bowl up until this season.

The national championship game on Monday is expected to draw a bigger audience, likely topping the "MNF" game from 2009 and giving ESPN a huge lead on cable to start the year.