Ratings were the lowest in years, but Michigan-FSU still delivered mostly positive numbers for TBS.
Saturday’s Michigan-Florida State NCAA Tournament regional final had a 5.3 rating and 9.7 million viewers on TBS, down a tick in ratings but up 4% in viewership from last year (Oregon-Kansas: 5.4, 9.3M) and down 21% and 16% respectively from 2016 on CBS (Villanova-Kansas: 6.7, 11.6M).
Not counting the Final Four, the Wolverines’ win delivered the fourth-largest college basketball audience in cable history. Three other Elite Eight games — Kentucky-Notre Dame in 2015 (14.7M), North Carolina-Notre Dame in 2016 (10.1M) and Wisconsin-Arizona in 2014 (10.0M) — hold the top spots.
Outside of the College Football Playoff, it was the third-most watched sporting event on cable in the past year, behind the Orange Bowl (Wisconsin-Miami: 11.7M), Fiesta Bowl (PSU-Washington: 10.2M) and Game 7 of the MLB ALCS (Yankees-Astros: 9.9M).
In addition, it delivered the second-largest audience of this year’s NCAA Tournament entering the Final Four, behind Kansas-Duke the following day (15.4M).
On a less positive note, the 5.3 rating is the lowest in the late Saturday Elite Eight window in more than 20 years. The previous low was set last year. It was the weekend’s only game to hit a ratings low.
The last major matchup between Michigan and FSU was in the the 2016 Orange Bowl. That college football game had a 6.2 rating and 11.5 million viewers, with the obvious caveat that FSU has much higher profile in football than in basketball.
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 3.27]
