Neither a Cinderella nor a traditional power, Gonzaga clinched its first trip to the Final Four in front of a historically small TV crowd.
Gonzaga-Xavier scored a 3.7 final rating and 6.0 million viewers in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament Elite Eight on TBS, down 20% in ratings and 21% in viewership from Oklahoma-Oregon on CBS last year (4.6, 7.7M) and down 29% and 31% respectively from Wisconsin-Arizona on TBS in 2015 (5.2, 8.8M).
The 3.7 rating is the lowest for any Elite Eight game since at least 1997, falling below the previous mark of 4.3 for Florida-Dayton on TBS in 2014 and Louisville-Florida on CBS in 2012.
The Bulldogs’ easy win was also the least-watched Elite Eight game in at least nine years (complete viewership records prior to 2009 were not available).
Gonzaga’s previous Elite Eight appearance in 2015 had a much higher 8.9 rating and 14.7 million viewers, but that was against Duke in the cushiest timeslot of the weekend (late Sunday afternoon). Their first trip to the regional final back in 1999 had a 7.2 rating in the same early Saturday timeslot, though that was when they first burst onto the national scene as a Cinderella story.
Xavier’s previous Elite Eight appearance in 2008 had a 5.2 and 7.8 million, and their 2004 matchup with Duke (in that cushy Sunday afternoon window) had an 8.6.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 3.28)
