Men’s and women’s college basketball topped the first Saturday of March Madness.
Saturday’s Michigan State-North Carolina NCAA men’s basketball tournament second round game averaged a 5.0 rating and 10.02 million viewers on CBS, the top sports audience of the day and the largest college basketball audience of the season-to-date. The men’s tournament delivered the five largest audiences of the day. Additional details on those numbers are available here.
Caitlin Clark and Iowa led the women’s action with a 1.8 and 3.23 million for their win over 16 seed Holy Cross, easily the largest audience on record a first round women’s game. It was also the most-watched women’s game on record outside of the Final Four, though it has since been supplanted by Iowa’s second round game against West Virginia. More details on Saturday’s women’s numbers are available in the preceding links.
Beyond the hardwood, taped coverage of the World Figure Skating Championships topped the Saturday slate with a 1.0 and 1.56 million on NBC in primetime, up from last year, when the event coincided with the Elite Eight (0.9, 1.32M). Third round coverage of the PGA Tour at Tampa Bay drew a 0.8 and 1.30 million on NBC earlier in the day, down 24% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year (1.0, 1.57M).
NASCAR Xfinity Series racing from Circuit of the Americas (Austin, Texas) averaged a 0.53 and 896,000 on FS1, up a hair in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year (0.52, 815K), while a Truck Series race at the track had a 0.38 (-12%) and 618,000 (-11%) earlier in the day. The F1 Australian Grand Prix drew a 0.27 (-10%) and 541,000 (-3%) on ESPN2 in a late night slot, marking the third-straight decline to open the season.
ABC averaged a 0.43 and 836,000 for a primetime Panthers-Rangers NHL regular season game, down from Penguins-Rangers opposite the tournament last year (0.52, 901K). In the same window on BTN, the Michigan State-Michigan Big Ten hockey championship had a 0.07 and 136,000, down from Michigan-Minnesota last year (165K).
The day session of the NCAA wrestling championship averaged a 0.07 and 110,000 on ESPNU, while the primetime session drew a 0.23 and 410,000 on ESPN — down a hair in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year (0.24, 454K). Penn State already had the title wrapped up before Saturday’s competition. Wrestling led into a UFC Fight Night at a 0.42 and 745,000.
In soccer, an England-Brazil friendly averaged a 0.23 and 416,000 on FOX, while ION drew a 0.12 and 182,000 for Bay FC-Washington and a 0.08 and 122,000 for Kansas City-San Diego in NWSL action.
Rounding out the day, a Celtics-Bulls NBA regular season game drew a 0.13 and 230,000 on NBA TV, down from Bucks-Nuggets on the same night a year ago (269K). The Big 12 gymnastics championships had a 0.01 and 20,000 on ESPNU, edging session two of the Big Ten Championship at a 0.01 and 15,000 on BTN later in the night. Those were the only two conference title meets on Nielsen rated television.
Saturday, March 23 sports ratings
