The least-watched National Championship ever on CBS was a ratings hit by the standards of the last 13 months.
Monday’s Baylor-Gonzaga men’s NCAA Tournament National Championship averaged a 9.4 rating and 16.92 million viewers on CBS, marking the highest rated and most-watched non-football sporting event since Game 7 of the 2019 World Series (23.22M). The previous highs were set two nights earlier by Gonzaga-UCLA in the national semifinals (7.6, 14.94M).
No other sporting event — save for football — has cracked a 7.0 rating or 13 million viewers since the wave of cancellations and postponements that began in March of last year.
The Bears’ blowout win still ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched National Championship ever on broadcast television. Only the 2018 Villanova-Michigan title game, which aired on TBS, TNT and TruTV, ranks lower all-time (9.2, 15.97M). Ratings fell 19% and viewership 14% from the previous National Championship, Virginia-Texas Tech on CBS in 2019 (11.6, 19.63M). [Related: men’s Final Four ratings history.]
The game averaged a 21 share — meaning 21% of televisions in use were tuned to the game — down 8% from 2019 (23).
Even with a double-digit drop and historic low, Baylor-Gonzaga held up better than the majority of marquee sporting events over the past year. Its 14% decline in viewership is modest compared college football’s National Championship in January (-27%) or last year’s World Series (-30%), NBA Finals (-49%) and and Stanley Cup Final (-61%). Perhaps only the Super Bowl — which fell just 9% and still averaged more than 90 million viewers — more successfully weathered the storm.
In the key young adult demographics, the National Championship averaged a 4.1 rating in adults 18-49 (-23% from 2019), a 3.1 in 18-34 (-26%), and a 5.1 in 25-54 (-18%) — making it television’s highest rated non-football program in each demo since the last Academy Awards in February of last year (5.3, 3.8 and 6.8 respectively).
The complete NCAA men’s basketball tournament averaged 3.82 million viewers per game, according to The Hollywood Reporter — down 13% from 2019. Despite the strong finish, the tournament had trouble hitting the high notes. Just four of this year’s 66 games cracked the eight million viewer mark, compared to 11 in 2019 and nine in 2018.
Most-watched (non-football) sportscasts since 2019
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 4.6, ShowBuzz Daily 4.6, Hollywood Reporter 4.6]
