The final college basketball weekend before the month of March produced three top ten audiences.
CBS earned a 1.5 final rating and 2.3 million viewers for Florida-Kentucky Saturday afternoon, up 67% in ratings and 75% in viewership from Oklahoma-Texas last year (0.9, 1.3M) and up 36% and 53% respectively from North Carolina-Miami in 2015 (1.1, 1.5M).
The Wildcats’ win delivered the eighth-largest college basketball audience of the season. Kentucky has now played in four of the eight most-watched games, more than any other team.
Later in the day, Duke-Miami had a 1.5 and 2.2 million — up 25% in ratings and 17% in viewership from Kentucky-Vanderbilt last year (1.2, 1.9M) but down 21% and 23% respectively from Arkansas-Kentucky in ’15 (1.9, 2.9M). It ranks ninth for the season in viewership.
The other games on CBS did not perform as well. SMU-UConn led off Saturday’s tripleheader with a 0.6 (-25%) and 798,000 (-26%), Syracuse-Louisville opened Sunday’s doubleheader with a 1.1 (flat) and 1.6 million (-5%) and Wisconsin-Michigan State closed the weekend with a 1.3 (-19%) and 2.0 million (-17%)
Shifting to ESPN, Saturday’s UCLA-Arizona game had a 1.2 and 2.1 million — up 122% in ratings and 166% in viewership from Florida-LSU last year (0.55, 801K) but down 14% and 6% respectively from an earlier Syracuse-Duke game two years ago (1.4, 2.3M). It scored the tenth-largest audience of the season.
In the nightcap, then-#1 Gonzaga’s first loss of the season to BYU had a 0.9 and 1.5 million. There was no comparable window last year.
| TOP CBB GAMES, 2016-17 SEASON Through February 23 Ranked by viewership |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Game | Net | Rtg. | Vwrs. |
| 1 | Kentucky-UNC December 17 |
CBS | 2.2 | 3.62M |
| 2 | Kentucky-Kansas January 28 |
ESPN | 2.0 | 3.35M |
| 3 | UNC-Duke February 9 |
ESPN | 1.8 | 3.08M |
| 4 | Wisconsin-Purdue January 8 |
CBS | 1.9 | 2.97M |
| 5 | Kentucky-Louisville December 21 |
ESPN | 1.7 | 2.72M |
| 6 | Mich. St.-Ohio St. January 15 |
CBS | 1.5 | 2.363M |
| 7 | Kansas-Duke November 15 |
ESPN | 1.5 | 2.361M |
| 8 | Florida-Kentucky February 25 |
CBS | 1.5 | 2.31M |
| 9 | Duke-Miami February 25 |
CBS | 1.5 | 2.20M |
| 10 | UCLA-Arizona February 25 |
ESPN | 1.2 | 2.13M |
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 2.28)
