A scheduling change boosted ratings for the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
With each game airing in its own standalone weekend window, six of eight men’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 games increased in ratings and viewership over 2019 — when the games cannibalized each other in competing weeknight doubleheaders.
Saturday’s Houston-Syracuse game on TBS posted the biggest jump, rising 37% in ratings (to 3.0) and 55% in viewership (to 5.52M). The comparable window in 2019 — Virginia-Oregon (2.2, 3.56M) — aired in a Thursday night window opposite a higher rated Texas Tech-Michigan game on CBS.
The TBS games were the biggest beneficiaries of the scheduling change, no surprise as the network usually places second to CBS when they air competing games. Ratings and viewership jumped 31% and 40% respectively for USC-Oregon Sunday night (2.7, 4.79M), 15% and 16% for the preceding Alabama-UCLA game (3.7, 6.51M) and 8% and 22% for Arkansas-Oral Roberts on Saturday (3.2, 5.94M).
Alabama-UCLA ranks as the most-watched Sweet 16 game on TBS since Wisconsin-North Carolina in 2015 (6.89M).
CBS was a mixed bag. The network aired the top game of the weekend in Michigan-Florida State Sunday evening (5.1, 9.03M), but ratings fell 16% and viewership 10% from Zion Williamson-led Duke against Virginia Tech on a Friday night in 2019 (6.05, 10.07M).
Despite the drop, the Wolverines’ win ranks as the most-watched basketball game, college or pro, since Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals — and the first since 2019 to crack a 5.0 rating.
CBS also saw a drop for Oregon State’s Saturday afternoon upset of Loyola-Chicago (3.4, 5.74M), down 15% and 11% respectively from the corresponding Thursday night game in 2019 (Gonzaga-FSU: 4.03, 6.48M).
On the plus side, Baylor-Villanova (4.2, 7.54M) increased 10% in ratings and 24% in viewership over the comparable Thursday window in 2019 (Texas Tech-Michigan: 3.8, 6.11M). Gonzaga-Creighton rose 9% and 15% respectively over the comparable Friday window in ’19 (Michigan State-LSU: 3.6, 5.79M).
Even though each game aired in its own standalone window, CBS and Turner kept to their usual practice of combining the viewership for their respective telecasts. On a combined basis, the four Sweet 16 windows averaged 12.9 million viewers — up 12% from 2019 and the highest average since 1993.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.30, CBS/Turner/Twitter 3.30]
