It lacked national appeal on paper, but an unexpected matchup of SEC football schools still did pretty well in the Elite Eight.
South Carolina-Florida had a 5.9 final rating and 9.7 million viewers in Sunday’s NCAA Tournament Elite Eight on CBS, up 31% in ratings and 27% in viewership from Syracuse-Virginia on TBS last year, which aired in a later window (4.5, 7.6M), but down 12% and 8% respectively from Michigan State-Louisville on CBS in 2015 (6.7, 10.6M).
The 5.9 rating is about average for the early Sunday Elite Eight window, ranking fifth out of the past ten.
The Gamecocks’ win also ranks as the fifth-most watched game of this year’s NCAA Tournament, behind North Carolina-Kentucky later in the day (15.5M), Kansas-Michigan State in the second round (11.0M), Kentucky-Wichita State in the second round (10.3M) and Kentucky-UCLA in Friday’s Sweet Sixteen (10.0M).
For an apples-to-oranges comparison, last year’s SEC on CBS football schedule topped out at a 6.6 and 11.1 million for the Alabama-Florida conference championship game. The South Carolina-Florida game pulled a 1.5 and 2.5 million on November 12.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 3.28)
