Airing on cable for the second time, an anti-climactic NCAA Tournament final hit a record-low in the overnights.
Monday’s Villanova-Michigan NCAA Tournament national championship earned a 10.3 overnight rating across TBS, TNT and TruTV, according to Sports Business Daily reporter Austin Karp — down 29% from last year on CBS (UNC-Gonzaga: 14.5) and down 14% from 2016 on the Turner networks (Villanova-UNC: 12.0).
The 10.3 is easily the lowest on record for college basketball’s national championship, falling below the previous mark of 11.2 in 2004 (UConn-GT). Villanova has now played in two of the five lowest rated title games in the metered markets, with their 2016 win over UNC ranking fifth. Both of the Wildcats’ wins aired on cable.
Per Karp, Villanova’s rout peaked at an 11.5 — six full points lower than last year’s peak of 17.5. Overnights fell to a mere 7.0 in the final 15 minutes.
To put the numbers in perspective, the 10.3 overnight trails January’s college football national championship on the ESPN family of networks (Alabama-UGA: 16.7) and every NBA Finals game since 2014 (Heat-Spurs Game 2: 10.2).
Notably, Monday’s overnight was only barely the highest of this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Duke-Kansas regional final had a 10.1 on CBS.
[Mon. numbers from Austin Karp/Twitter 4.3]
