Women's NCAA Tournament on Par With Last Year

Aided by a strong finish, this year’s Women’s NCAA Tournament had a slight increase in viewership over last year.

The ESPN family of networks averaged a 0.6 U.S. rating and 864,000 viewers for coverage of the 2014 Women’s NCAA Tournament, flat in ratings and up 5% in viewership from last year (0.6, 823K).

The tournament benefited from strong numbers for the Connecticut/Notre Dame National Championship Game, which was the highest rated and most-viewed in ten years (2.8, 4.3M), and the sixth-most viewed title game since ESPN acquired rights to the event in 1996. [More details on the title game here.]

The title game marked a turnaround from Sunday night, when both games of the Final Four declined. Connecticut/Stanford drew 2.3 million viewers on ESPN, down 24% from Connecticut/Notre Dame last year (3.0M) and down 38% from Baylor/Stanford in 2012 (3.8M). The early Notre Dame/Maryland game earned 1.8 million — down 21% from Louisville/Cal last year (2.3M), and down 39% from Notre Dame/Connecticut in 2012 (2.9M).

Outside of the Final Four, the top telecast of the tournament was BYU/UConn in the Sweet Sixteen (0.9, 1.5M).

Ratings/Viewership For 2014 Women’s NCAA Tournament

Window	Time	Game	Net(s)	Rating	Viewers
FIRST ROUND
Saturday, March 22
Aft. #1	11:00 AM	Winthrop/Duke, Wright St./Kentucky, Arizona St./Vanderbilt, or FGSU/Okla. St.	ESPN2	0.2	288K
Aft. #2	1:30 PM	Oklahoma/DePaul, Chattanooga/Syracuse, or Akron/Purdue	ESPN2	0.2	274K
Aft. #2	1:30 PM	Robert Morris/Notre Dame	ESPN	0.2	317K
Eve. #1	4:00 PM	FSU/Iowa, Northwestern/Tennessee, Fresno St./Nebraska, or Fordham/Cal	ESPN2	0.3	551K
Eve. #2	6:30 PM	SDSU/Stanford, USC/St. John’s, BYU/N.C. State or WKU/Baylor	ESPN2	0.2	436K
Sunday, March 23
Aft. #1	12:00 PM	GT/LSU, Hampton/Mich. St., Army/Maryland or Wichita St./PSU	ESPN2	0.2	224K
Aft. #2	3:00 PM	Albany/WVU, Tennessee-Mart./UNC, Penn/Texas or Florida/Dayton	ESPN	0.3	433K
Eve. #1	5:30 PM	JMU/Gonzaga, Idaho/Louisville, CS Northridge/South Carolina or St. Joe’s/UGA	ESPN	0.3	469K
Eve. #2	8:00 PM	North Dakota/TAMU, Marist/Iowa or Oreg. St./Mid. Tenn.	ESPN2	0.1	196K
Eve. #2	8:00 PM	Prairie View A&M/UConn	ESPN	0.3	474K
SECOND ROUND
Monday, March 24
Eve. #1	6:30 PM	DePaul/Duke, Syracuse/Kentucky, FSU/Stanford or Ariz. St./Notre Dame	ESPN2	0.3	486K
Eve. #1	6:30 PM	Arizona St./Notre Dame simulcast	ESPNEWS	0.1	103K
Eve. #2	9:00 PM	Okla. St./Purdue, St. John’s/Tennessee, BYU/Nebraska, or Cal/Baylor	ESPN2	0.5	864K
Tuesday, March 25
Eve. #1	7:00 PM	Mich. St./UNC, Texas/Maryland, Florida/PSU or St. Joe’s/UConn	ESPN2	0.4	534K
Eve. #1	7:00 PM	St. Joseph’s/UConn simulcast	ESPNU	0.1	144K
Eve. #2	9:30 PM	JMU/TAMU, Iowa/Louisville, Ore. St./So. Carolina or LSU/WVU	ESPN2	0.4	551K
SWEET SIXTEEN
Saturday, March 29
Aft. #1	12:00 PM	Kentucky/Baylor	ESPN	0.6	870K
Aft. #2	2:00 PM	Oklahoma St./Notre Dame	ESPN	0.8	1.194M
Eve. #1	4:30 PM	BYU/UConn	ESPN	0.9	1.469M
Eve. #2	6:30 PM	DePaul/Texas A&M	ESPN	0.4	556K
Sunday, March 30
Aft. #1	12:00 PM	Maryland/Tennessee	ESPN	0.7	1.048M
Aft. #2	2:00 PM	LSU/Louisville	ESPN2	0.3	447K
Eve. #1	4:30 PM	Penn St./Stanford	ESPN2	0.3	373K
Eve. #2	6:30 PM	UNC/South Carolina	ESPN2	0.5	772K
ELITE EIGHT
Monday, March 31
Eve. #1	7:30 PM	Baylor/Notre Dame	ESPN	0.8	1.270M
Eve. #2	9:30 PM	TAMU/UConn	ESPN	0.9	1.320M
Tuesday, April 1
Eve. #1	2:20 PM	Maryland/Louisville	ESPN	0.7	967K
Eve. #2	5:05 PM	UNC/Stanford	ESPN	0.7	1.019M
FINAL FOUR
Sunday, April 6
Eve. #1	6:09 PM	Maryland/Notre Dame	ESPN	1.2	1.806M
Eve. #2	8:49 PM	Stanford/UConn	ESPN	1.5	2.312M
Tuesday, April 8
Eve. #1	9:00 PM	Notre Dame/UConn	ESPN	2.8	4.271M

(Averages from ESPN; game-by-game numbers from Son of the Bronx [1], [2], [3])

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Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.