Just as in the overnights, final NCAA Selection Show ratings finished at an all-time low. In other news, Tuesday’s First Four ratings declined on TruTV, and a scheduling change lifted the American Athletic Tournament.
Final Selection Show Ratings Plummet to Record-Low
The two-hour telecast, which was widely panned by social media critics, ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched Selection Show ever. Ratings and viewership have now declined in five straight years.
ESPN’s Bracketology special, which competed with the second hour of the Selection Show, had a 1.0 (-1%) and 1.6 million (-2%).
Tuesday’s First Four Games Down
In the late window, St. Bonaventure-UCLA scored a 1.1 rating and 1.7 million viewers — flat in ratings and down 6% in viewership from last year (K State-Wake Forest: 1.1, 1.8M) but up a tick and 13% respectively from 2015 (Wichita St.-Vanderbilt: 1.5M). Radford-LIU Brooklyn had a 0.6 and 1.0 million (-19%) earlier in the night.
Time Change Boosts American Athletic Championship
The Bearcats’ win, the most-watched title game in American Athletic history (dates back to 2014), aired in the window usually occupied by the Big Ten title game. Compared to last year’s Big Ten game, ratings fell 39% from a 2.3 and viewership 42% from 3.5 million.
In other mid-major action, Sunday’s Davidson-Rhode Island Atlantic-10 title game had a 0.9 (-18%) and 1.3 million (-16%). Saturday’s San Diego State-New Mexico State Mountain West final had a 1.0 (+22%) and 1.6 million (+21%). Those games also aired on CBS.
[Numbers from ShowBuzz Daily 3.13, Programming Insider 3.14a, 3.14b]
