A move from cable to broadcast boosted the Big East championship, but the game was still not much of a draw.
The Seton Hall/Villanova Big East Tournament final drew a 1.0 overnight rating on FOX Saturday afternoon, up 233% from Villanova/Xavier last year (0.3) and up 100% from Providence/Creighton in 2014 (0.5), both of which aired on FS1. Compared to the last championship of the original Big East, Louisville/Syracuse in 2013, overnights dropped 52% from a 2.1 on ESPN.
The Pirates’ upset win scored the second-highest college basketball overnight on the Fox Sports family of networks, behind only a Duke/St. John’s game in January of last year (1.5).
Though big for FOX, the Big East championship was the lowest rated college hoops telecast of the weekend on broadcast — behind even the Mountain West and Atlantic-10 title games on CBS (1.1 for each). Head-to-head, it trailed both the Mountain West game and the Big 12 championship on ESPN (1.5).
(Sat. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
