NCAA Selection Sunday was of course dominated by the Selection Show, while NASCAR again took the top spot among actual games themselves.
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament Selection Show was easily the most-watched sports program of Sunday, March 17, with a 3.1 rating and 5.91 million viewers on CBS — trailing only 2019 as the largest audience for the event in the past decade. Both of Sunday’s selection shows hit highs, as the women’s edition was the most-watched in 20 years with 1.94 million on ESPN.
Among actual sports competitions Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series from Bristol (Tenn.) topped the charts with a 2.1 and 3.81 million — up 11% in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year, when the race took place in April on Easter Sunday (1.9, 3.45M). Compared to the fifth race of last season, Atlanta opposite the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, ratings increased a tick and viewership 11% (from 3.42M).
Denny Hamlin’s win, which peaked with 4.6 million viewers, was the fourth-straight Cup Series race to increase over last year.
Returning to college basketball, the Illinois-Wisconsin Big Ten Tournament final ranked second among sports contests with a 1.9 and 3.65 million — the highest for the event in three years. See the following link for additional information on Sunday’s conference tournament ratings, including declines for the Atlantic 10, SEC and American Athletic title games.
Placing third, final round coverage of The Players Championship golf tournament averaged a 2.1 and 3.53 million on NBC — down 16% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (2.5, 4.14M). All four rounds of play declined from a year ago.
Further down the dial, ABC averaged a 1.3 and 2.15 million for a Nuggets-Mavericks NBA regular season game, preceded by Suns-Bucks at a 1.0 an 1.51 million. The latter game ranks as the second-least watched on ABC this season, ahead of a non-exclusive Wednesday night Suns-Nets game in January. See this link for more on ABC’s NBA ratings this season.
In other NBA action, NBA TV averaged a 0.23 and 387,000 for Hawks-Clippers and a 0.21 and 364,000 for Nets-Spurs.
In NHL action, TNT averaged a 0.22 and 408,000 for Islanders-Rangers and a 0.16 and 308,000 for Devils-Golden Knights.
In tennis, the Carlos Alcaraz-Daniil Medvedev Indian Wells men’s final averaged a 0.27 and 487,000, preceded by the Iga Swiatek-Maria Sakkari women’s final at a 0.17 and 249,000. Viewership for the men’s final increased 39% from the same matchup last year (351K), while the women’s final declined 24% from last year’s Elena Rybakina-Aryna Sabalenka matchup (326K).
On the final day of the college gymnastics regular season, Alabama-Oklahoma chipped in a 0.09 and 148,000 on ESPN2.
Sunday, March 17 sports ratings
