NCAA Sweet Sixteen ratings were no match for last year, with Friday’s audience the smallest since the current CBS/Turner coverage began in 2011.
The NCAA Tournament regional semifinals averaged a combined 10.5 million viewers across CBS and TBS, down 10% from last year (11.6M) but up 3% from 2016 (10.1M). Friday’s games averaged 10.4 million (-14%), the smallest Sweet Sixteen audience on the night since the CBS/Turner partnership began in 2011.
Duke-Syracuse was Friday’s top game with a 4.7 rating and 7.8 million viewers, down 20% in ratings and 22% in viewership from last year (Kentucky-UCLA: 5.9, 10.0M) but up 24% and 25% respectively from 2016 (Syracuse-Gonzaga: 3.8, 6.3M).
Airing concurrently on TBS, Texas Tech-Purdue pulled a 1.6 (-34%) and 2.7 million (-37%). The combined window had 10.5 million viewers (-26%).
Earlier in the night, CBS scored a 3.4 and 5.5 million for Kansas-Clemson — down 15% in both measures from lat year (UNC-Butler: 4.0, 6.4M) but up 6% from 2016 (UVA-Iowa State: 3.2, 5.2M).
In the night’s lone bright spot, Villanova-West Virginia had a 2.75 rating (+41%) and 4.8 million (+47%) on TBS. That big increase was enough to boost the window’s combined audience 6% over last year (from 9.7M to 10.2M).
Overall, only two of the eight Sweet Sixteen games posted an increase over last year — Villanova-West Virginia and Kansas State-Kentucky the previous night.
[Fri. numbers via Programming Insider 3.26; averages complied by SMW]
