On another mixed night for the NCAA men’s Sweet 16, CBS scored a pair of slight gains.
Friday’s Auburn-Michigan NCAA men’s basketball regional semifinal averaged a 3.6 rating and 7.34 million viewers on CBS, down 4% in ratings but up a fraction of a percent in viewership from Duke-Houston last year (3.8, 7.33M).
The Tigers’ win was easily the most-watched game of the Sweet 16. Michigan was a likely driving force behind the numbers, as the Wolverines also played in the most-watched game of the tournament overall — with more than ten million watching their second round win over Texas A&M last Saturday.
Earlier in the night, Michigan State-Mississippi averaged a 3.3 and 6.71 million, flat and up 4% respectively from NC State-Marquette last year (3.3, 6.44M). The concurrent Tennessee-Kentucky game drew a 1.5 (-16%) and 3.56 million (-7%) across TBS and truTV.
The early window combined for 10.27 million, down a fraction of a percent from last year (10.28M).
Figures for the night’s Houston-Purdue nightcap on TBS and truTV were not immediately available, meaning that a combined figure for the late window was also unavailable.
Shifting to the NCAA women’s regional semifinals, ESPN averaged a 0.7 and 1.41 million for LSU-NC State — flat and up 22% respectively from NC State-Stanford in the same window last year (0.7, 1.16M). Figures for the afternoon windows were not immediately available.
