A thrilling finish to the Sweet Sixteen delivered big numbers Friday night.
Coverage of the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen averaged 12.0 million viewers across CBS and TBS Friday night, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 13% from last year (10.6M) and up 8% from 2015 (11.1M). It was the third-most watched Sweet 16 Friday since 1993, trailing 2014 (13.3M) and 2013 (13.1M).
Late game coverage grossed 14.2 million, up 27% from last year (11.2M), up 18% from 2015 (12.1M) and the second-largest audience in the window since 1991. Coverage in 2014 had 15.2 million. In particular, Kentucky-UCLA had just shy of 10.0 million on CBS (+60%) — the largest audience for an individual Sweet Sixteen game since Kentucky-Louisville in 2014 (10.1M) — and Florida’s overtime win over Wisconsin had 4.2 million on TBS (-15%).
Early game coverage combined for 9.7 million viewers, down 2% from last year (9.9M), down 5% from 2015 (10.2M) and the smallest audience in the window since 2012 (9.6M). North Carolina-Butler had 6.4 million on CBS (+24%) and South Carolina-Baylor 3.3 million on TBS (-32%).
Entering the Elite Eight, the NCAA Tournament averaged 9.8 million viewers across CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV — up 11% from last year (8.8M), up 2% from 2015 (9.6M) and the highest average at this point of the tournament since 1993.
(Fri. numbers from Turner Sports PR/Twitter, 3.25, with additional information from ShowBuzz Daily 3.28)
