The combination of Easter family gatherings and an underdog upset of Duke delivered one of the largest basketball audiences in recent years.
Sunday’s NC State-Duke NCAA men’s basketball tournament regional final averaged a 6.4 rating and 15.14 million viewers on CBS, marking the most-watched Elite Eight game since Michigan State-Duke in 2019 (16.20M) and the most-watched basketball game of any kind, including the Final Four and NBA Finals, since the 2022 national championship (Kansas-North Carolina: 17.05M)
Since the wave of cancellations and postponements that decimated the industry four years ago, the Wolfpack’s win ranks fifth among basketball games behind the aforementioned 2022 title game, North Carolina-Duke in that year’s Final Four (17.66M), the 2021 national championship (Baylor-Gonzaga: 17.08M) and Gonzaga-UCLA in that year’s Final Four (15.39M).
Ratings increased 5% and viewership 34% from Miami-Texas last year (6.1, 11.30M). The sharp disparity between the household rating and average viewership is due to increased out-of-home viewing associated with the Easter Sunday holiday. Household ratings by definition do not include out-of-home viewing.
Easter Sunday has become a high-viewing day in the out-of-home era, having previously boosted the NBA to its most-watched opening weekend playoff game since 2002 and the Masters to its largest final round audience since 2019. Prior to the out-of-home era, Easter was actually a drag on viewership.
Earlier in the day, Purdue-Tennessee averaged a 4.4 and 10.39 million — actually down 6% in ratings but up 25% in viewership from San Diego State-Creighton last year (4.7, 8.34M). The Boilermakers’ win delivered the largest audience for the early Sunday Elite Eight game since Auburn-Kentucky in ’19 (10.49M).
Saturday’s games, which did not have the benefit of holiday viewing, did not fare nearly as well. Alabama-Clemson averaged a 3.8 and 7.79 million across TBS (3.1, 6.33M) and truTV (0.7, 1.46M), down 9% in ratings and 3% in viewership from UConn-Gonzaga on TBS alone last year (4.1, 7.99M).
UConn’s rout of Illinois — which included a 30-0 run and an Illini scoring drought of 50 real-time minutes — averaged a 3.0 and 6.48 million, down 17% in ratings and 8% in viewership from Florida Atlantic-Kansas State a year ago (3.6, 7.01M). TBS averaged a 2.5 and 5.47 million and truTV a 0.50 and 1.01 million.
Overall, the four Elite Eight windows averaged a combined 4.4 rating and 10.08 million viewers across CBS, TBS and truTV — down 4% in ratings but up 16% in viewership from last year’s two-network average (4.6, 8.68M). The full NCAA men’s basketball tournament is averaging a 4.8 and 9.43 million entering the Final Four, down 3% in ratings but up 4% in viewership from last year (5.0, 9.11M).
On an individual basis, the games have averaged a 1.9 and 3.71 million — down a tick in ratings but up 2% in viewership from last year (2.0, 3.62M).
