With Kentucky’s undefeated run on the line, overnight ratings were unsurprisingly high for Saturday’s Elite Eight clash against Notre Dame.
The Kentucky/Notre Dame NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game drew a 9.0 overnight rating on TBS Saturday night, up 53% from Wisconsin/Arizona last year (5.9), up 30% from Wichita State/Ohio State on CBS in 2013 (6.9), and the highest overnight ever for a college basketball game on a single cable network.
Overall, the 9.0 is the second-highest for any basketball game on cable TV — trailing only Game 7 of the Celtics/Heat NBA Eastern Conference Finals in 2012 (9.1). Last year’s Final Four semifinals, which aired on TBS, TNT and TruTV, combined for overnights of 7.4 (Connecticut/Florida) and 9.0 (Kentucky/Wisconsin).
Beyond cable, the 9.0 is the highest for the late Saturday Elite Eight window since Illinois/Arizona in 2005 (9.1), and the second-highest since at least 1998.
Saturday’s overnight peaked at a whopping 11.9 from 10:45-11 PM ET.
(Sat. overnight via Turner Sports)
