The final game of the NCAA Tournament on CBS put up solid numbers despite a decline.
Villanova/Kansas in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight earned a 6.7 final rating and 11.6 million viewers on CBS last Saturday, down 20% in ratings and 22% in viewership from Kentucky/Notre Dame last year (8.4, 14.7M) but up 16% in both measures from Wisconsin/Arizona in 2014 (5.8, 10.0M), both of which aired on TBS.
Compared to the last time CBS aired Saturday Elite Eight games, ratings dropped a tick and viewership actually increased 2% from Wichita State/Ohio State in 2013 (6.8, 11.3M).
The Wildcats’ win was the highest rated and most-watched game of the Elite Eight, marking the first time since 2009 that no game in the round managed to crack a 7.0 rating. More impressively, it scored the second-largest audience for a Saturday Elite Eight game in the past six years (14 telecasts) — since West Virginia/Kentucky in 2010 (12.1M).
(Wknd. numbers via Programming Insider)
