UConn has been less of a draw in this year’s Women’s NCAA Tournament, but a matchup against last year’s national champion posted a slight increase.
Monday’s UConn-South Carolina Women’s NCAA Tournament regional final delivered a 0.9 rating and 1.31 million viewers on ESPN, flat in ratings and up 2% in viewership from last year (UConn-Oregon: 0.9, 1.29M) and flat and down 2% respectively from 2016 (UConn-Texas: 0.9, 1.35M).
The Huskies’ latest rout was the team’s first game of the tournament to increase over last year. Their Sweet Sixteen win over Duke fell 20% in ratings (to 0.8) and 24% in viewership (to 1.1M). Their early round games also declined, though those were regionalized.
Despite the bump, it was not the night’s top game. Notre Dame-Oregon scored a 0.9 and 1.35 million viewers later in the night, up 29% in ratings and 19% in viewership from last year (South Carolina-FSU: 0.7, 1.1M) and flat and up 1% respectively from 2016 (Oregon State-Baylor: 0.9, 1.33M).
Notre Dame’s win was the most-watched Monday Elite Eight game since 2015 (Maryland-Texas: 1.5M). It also scored the largest audience of the tournament entering the Final Four.
Shifting to Sunday’s games, Mississippi State-UCLA drew a 0.6 (-25%) and 1.0 million (-21%) and Louisville-Oregon State had a 0.5 (-29%) and 753,000 (-25%).
[Wknd. numbers via Programming Insider 3.28, ShowBuzz Daily 3.27]
