With the other three games down, Michigan/Tulsa was by far the lone bright spot in this year’s First Four.
Michigan/Tulsa in the NCAA Tournament First Four scored a 1.4 final rating and 2.2 million viewers on TruTV Wednesday night, up 27% in ratings and 30% in viewership from Dayton/Boise State last year (1.1, 1.7M) and flat and down 3% (2.23M to 2.16M), respectively, from Tennessee/Iowa in 2014.
The Wolverines’ win earned the second-largest audience in the history of the First Four (dates back to 2011), behind only the above-mentioned Tennessee/Iowa game. No other game in the round has managed to hit the two million mark.
The other First Four games did not fare as well. On Tuesday, Wichita State/Vanderbilt scored a 1.0 and 1.5 million — flat in ratings and down 5% in viewership from Mississippi/BYU last year (1.0, 1.6M) and down 9% in both measures from N.C. State/Xavier in 2014 (1.1, 1.7M).
As for the two 16 seed matchups, Holy Cross/Southern drew 912,000 on Wednesday (-15%) and Florida Gulf Coast/Farleigh Dickinson had 683,000 on Tuesday (-24%). The latter ranks as easily the least-watched First Four game ever.
(Numbers from Turner Sports, Programming Insider [1], [2], ShowBuzz Daily [1], [2])
