The NCAA men’s basketball national championship trailed the women’s for the first time, but nonetheless eked out an increase over last year’s record-low.
Monday’s UConn-Purdue NCAA men’s basketball national championship averaged a 7.6 rating and 14.82 million viewers across TBS (7.40M), TNT (6.20M) and truTV (1.22M) — down 3% in ratings but up 1% in viewership from UConn-San Diego State on CBS last year (7.8, 14.7M). The Huskies’ ho-hum win ranks as the lowest rated national title game on record, but topped the all-time viewership low set last year.
For the first time, the men’s national championship was outdrawn by the women’s title game. Iowa-South Carolina averaged a 9.3 and 18.89 million across ABC, ESPN and ESPN Deportes the previous day, making it the most-watched basketball game of any kind since 2019. After topping the women’s title game by 48% last year — and triple-figures in all prior years — the men’s title game trailed by 21% this season.
This year is thus the first since 2018 in which the men’s tournament will not deliver the largest basketball audience of the year.
NCAA men’s and women’s national championship viewership
While the men’s title game finished four million viewers shy of the women’s, the two events tied in adults 18-49 (3.9). Previously, both of Saturday’s national semifinals were outdrawn by Iowa-UConn in the Women’s Final Four.
This year also marks the first time that neither the national championship nor national semifinals were the most-watched game of the men’s tournament, as NC State-Duke in the Elite Eight finished in the top spot with 15.14 million. That Elite Eight game aired on Easter Sunday, a day associated with higher viewing levels in the out-of-home era.
This season was the second of the past three in which the national championship was not the most-watched of the tournament. Two years ago, the North Carolina-Duke national semifinal finished ahead of the Kansas-North Carolina title game. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, those are two of only four years in which the national title game aired on cable.
Overall, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament averaged a combined 5.0 rating and 9.86 million viewers per window across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV — down 3% in ratings but up 3% in viewership from last year (5.2, 9.55M). On an individual basis, the games averaged a 2.1 and 4.14 million, down a tick but up 2% respectively from last year (2.2, 4.07M).
