Concluding a successful NCAA Tournament for CBS and Turner Sports, the national championship game scored basketball’s top audience since the days of Jordan’s Bulls.
Monday’s Duke/Wisconsin NCAA Tournament National Championship Game earned a 16.0 rating and 28.3 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen fast-nationals — up 28% in ratings and 33% in viewership from Connecticut/Kentucky last year (12.4, 21.2M) and up 14% and 21%, respectively, from Louisville/Michigan in 2013 (14.0, 23.4M).
The Blue Devils’ win ranks as the highest rated title game since Connecticut/Duke in 1999 (17.2) and the most-watched since Arizona/Kentucky in 1997 (28.4M). Duke’s last three championships — this year, 2010 against Butler (23.9M) and 2001 against Arizona (24.0M) — rank as the three most-watched college basketball games since 2000.
Overall, Duke/Wisconsin ranks as the highest rated and most-watched basketball game (college or pro) since Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals (22.8, 35.9M). The previous highs were the 17.2 for Connecticut/Duke in 1999 and 28.2 million for Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals.
Compared to other sports, Monday’s game topped every Major League Baseball telecast since Red Sox/Cardinals Game 4 in 2004 (18.2, 28.8M), including the last two Game 7s of the World Series. It outdrew every World Cup match ever on U.S. television, including the record audience of 26.5 million for last year’s Germany/Argentina final. It topped all-but-one of last year’s Winter Olympics telecasts, trailing only the Opening Ceremony (17.0, 31.7M).
It could not, however, match January’s College Football National Championship Game, which drew 34.2 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks (33.4 million on ESPN alone).
Dating back to the Elite Eight, Monday’s championship game was the seventh straight NCAA Tournament telecast window to hit a multi-year high in ratings and/or viewership. That includes a 22-year viewership high for the Wisconsin/Kentucky national semifinal on TBS.
(Mon. numbers from CBS/Turner Sports)
