For the fourth time this decade, ratings for the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship game hit an all-time record low.
North Carolina’s victory over Michigan State drew a 10.8/17 final rating and 17.6 million viewers on CBS Monday, down 11% and 10% respectively from a 12.1/20 and 19.5 million for last year’s game between Kansas and Memphis, and the lowest rating ever for the national title game.
The 10.8 rating is 2% lower than the previous record low — an 11.0 for Connecticut/Georgia Tech in ’04. While the rating is the lowest ever for the title game, the 17.6 million viewers is only the third-lowest, ahead of 17.1 million for Connecticut/Georgia Tech in ’04 and 17.5 million for Florida/UCLA in ’06.
Despite the record low, the 10.8 for North Carolina/Michigan surpassed the highest rated game of last year’s NBA Finals (Game 6, 10.7 rating), the highest rated game of last year’s World Series (Game 5, 9.6), February’s Daytona 500 (9.2), last year’s Kentucky Derby (8.9) and Belmont Stakes (9.0), the final round of last year’s Masters (8.6), and college football’s Fiesta (10.4), Orange (5.4) and Sugar (7.8) bowls.
Since drawing a 17.2 rating in ’99, ratings for the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship game have declined 37%. From ’00 to ’09, the national title game averaged a 13.0 rating — down 34% from the 19.7 the game averaged from ’90 to ’99.
Source: Television Week
