It was a clean sweep of declines for the Elite Eight.
Oklahoma/Oregon in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight earned a 4.6 final rating and 7.7 million viewers on CBS last Saturday, down 12% in ratings and 13% in viewership from Wisconsin/Arizona last year (5.2, 8.8M) but up 7% in both measures from Florida/Dayton in 2014 (4.3, 7.2M), both of which aired on TBS.
Compared to the last time CBS aired Saturday Elite Eight games, ratings were flat and viewership increased 7% from Syracuse/Marquette in 2013 (4.6, 7.2M).
All four games in this year’s Elite Eight had double-digit declines in ratings and viewership. Unlike Sunday’s Elite Eight games, which were the lowest rated in their respective windows since at least 1998, both of Saturday’s matchups avoided multi-year lows.
Through the Elite Eight, the NCAA Tournament has averaged a combined 8.9 million viewers per window on CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV — down 12% from 10.1 million last year, down 9% from 9.8 million in 2014, and the smallest average at this point of the tournament since 2012 (8.7M).
(Wknd. numbers via Programming Insider; tournament avg. from Sports Business Daily)
