With North Carolina’s upset loss to Alabama leading the way, Thursday’s NCAA Sweet Sixteen viewership increased slightly from last year.
Thursday’s Alabama-North Carolina NCAA men’s basketball tournament regional semifinal averaged a 4.2 rating and 7.80 million viewers on CBS, up 20% in ratings and 27% in viewership from Gonzaga-UCLA last year (3.5, 6.13M) and the most-watched game of the night.
North Carolina finished its tournament run having played in two of the four most-watched games thus far, with Thursday’s game placing fourth and their second round win over Michigan State ranking first (10.02M).
In the same window on cable, Illinois-Iowa State averaged 3.30 million across TBS (2.71M) and truTV (586K) — down 17% from FAU-Tennessee on TBS alone last year (3.97M). This year’s game began about a half-hour later than last and did not end until well after Midnight ET.
CBS, TBS and truTV combined to average 11.10 million viewers in the late window Thursday night, up 10% from last year on CBS and TBS alone (10.11M).
Earlier in the night, CBS averaged a 3.6 and 6.53 million for Clemson’s upset of Arizona — up 42% in ratings and 53% in viewership from UConn-Arkansas last year (2.5, 4.26M). This year’s UConn squad garnered just 2.83 million for their competing rout of San Diego State across TBS (2.30M) and truTV (529K), down 52% from Kansas State-Michigan State on TBS alone last year (5.92M).
The three networks combined to average 9.36 million in the early window, down 8% from last year’s two-network average (10.18M).
Overall, Thursday’s Sweet Sixteen games averaged a combined 10.24 million, up 1% from last year’s 10.15 million. (On an individual basis, the four games averaged 5.14 million, compared to 5.10 million a year ago.)
