With Championship Week heating up, college basketball dominated the sports viewership charts for Friday, March 15.
Friday’s North Carolina-Pittsburgh ACC Tournament semifinal averaged 1.72 million viewers on ESPN, the largest sports audience of the day and up 44% from an Iowa State-Kansas Big 12 semifinal in the same window last year (1.20M). (Viewership also increased 27% over last year’s early ACC semifinal — Duke-Miami — which aired on ESPN2.)
Placing a distant second for the day, the UConn-St. John’s Big East Tournament semifinal averaged 1.28 million on FOX — the largest audience for a Big East semifinal since the conference relaunched and joined Fox Sports in 2014. Keep in mind it was the first semifinal to air on broadcast television. Compared to last year’s early semifinal on FS1 (UConn-Marquette), viewership more than doubled from 608,000.
The Big Ten Tournament took third place as 1.13 million watched an Illinois-Ohio State quarterfinal on BTN — up 75% from Penn State-Northwestern last year (644K) and the second-largest basketball audience in network history. The Illini’s win trails only a Michigan State-Wisconsin men’s quarterfinal two years ago (1.19M).
Three of the four largest basketball audiences ever on BTN have come just this March, with the women’s tournament accounting for two of them.
The full day of Big Ten games averaged 858,000, up 6% from last year. The Nebraska-Indiana nightcap drew 914,000 (-5%), Purdue-Michigan State opened the day with 731,000 (+1%) and Northwestern-Wisconsin drew 639,000 (-33%).
Returning to the ESPN networks, the afternoon portion of the SEC Tournament quarterfinals averaged 990,000 viewers on ESPN — down 9% from 1.09 million last year. South Carolina-Auburn drew 1.02 million (-29%) and Tennessee-Mississippi State 962,000 (+36%). The primetime quarterfinals aired on SEC Network, which is not Nielsen-rated.
ESPN2 topped out at 985,000 for an NC State-Virginia ACC Tournament semifinal, up 9% from Clemson-Virginia last year (901K). The Wolfpack’s upset win averaged a larger audience on ESPN2 than the competing Baylor-Iowa State Big 12 semifinal drew on the ESPN flagship. That game averaged 973,000, down 2% from TCU-Texas in the same slot a year ago (997K).
In the other Big 12 semifinal, Texas Tech-Houston drew 449,000 on ESPN2 — down two-thirds from last year’s previously-mentioned Duke-Miami ACC game (1.35M).
Over on FS1, a Washington State-Colorado Pac-12 Tournament semifinal averaged 439,000 — down 37% from last year’s equivalent semifinal on ESPN (692K). It was preceded by a Providence-Marquette Big East semifinal at 434,000 (+11%).
Outside of basketball, the second round of The Players Championship was the day’s top sportscast with 803,000 on Golf Channel — down from weather-delay coverage last year (860K). Indian Wells tennis topped out at 264,000 for Coco Gauff’s semifinal loss to Maria Sakkari. NBA TV averaged 234,000 for a Hawks-Jazz NBA regular season game, preceded by Suns-Hornets at 167,000.
Friday, March 15 sports ratings
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Original chart below:
