Thrilling on-court results could not keep Women’s Final Four ratings afloat, with all three games at or near historic lows.
Sunday’s Notre Dame-Mississippi State Women’s NCAA Tournament national championship had a 2.0 overnight rating on ESPN, down 17% from last year (South Carolina-Mississippi State: 2.4) but even with 2016 (UConn-Syracuse).
Notre Dame’s last-second win tied the lowest overnight for the title game since 2009 (UConn-Stanford: 1.9).
Sunday was no exception. On Friday, Notre Dame’s upset of UConn in the national semifinals delivered a 1.4 rating and 2.3 million viewers on ESPN2 — down 21% in ratings and 17% in viewership from Mississippi State’s upset of UConn last year (1.75, 2.8M) but up 40% and 43% respectively from 2016 (Syracuse-Washington: 1.0, 1.6M).
Despite the thrilling overtime finish, it was the second-least watched late semifinal in at least a decade. Only the 2016 game had a smaller audience. The games aired on a Sunday night prior to last year, and on ESPN prior to 2016.
Earlier in the night, Mississippi State-Louisville had a 0.9 and 1.51 million viewers — down a tick in ratings but up 1% in viewership from last year (SC-Stanford: 1.0, 1.50M) and down 40% and 35% respectively from 2016 on ESPN (UConn-Oregon State: 2.3M).
The Bulldogs’ win was the lowest rated Women’s Final Four game since at least 1999 and the second-least watched in at least a decade.
Given the on-court results — all three games decided either at the buzzer or in overtime — the low numbers may be surprising. One possible explanation is the Women’s Final Four schedule. Both national semifinals now air on ESPN2 and the national championship has been moved out of primetime. Just three years ago, all three games aired on ESPN and the title game took place on a Tuesday night.
Last year, the novelty and buzz surrounding UConn’s upset loss helped to mitigate that weaker schedule. UConn’s loss this season did not have the same impact.
Despite the lower numbers, both semifinals outdrew the competing NBA games on ESPN. Mississippi State-Louisville edged Pelicans-Cavaliers by 2% (1.51M to 1.49M), while Notre Dame-UConn more-than-doubled Clippers-Blazers (2.3M to 917K).
[Wknd. numbers via Programming Insider 4.3, Sports Business Daily 4.2, ShowBuzz Daily 4.2]
