Viewership was down across the board for the Women’s Elite Eight, but the results were a different story one round earlier.
UConn-UCLA scored a 1.0 final rating and 1.5 million viewers in Saturday’s Women’s NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen on ESPN, up 67% in ratings and 81% in viewership from Texas-UCLA last year (0.6, 815K) and up 67% and 89% respectively from Dayton-Louisville in 2015 (0.6, 780K).
Outside of the Final Four, the Huskies’ win delivered the second-largest Women’s NCAA Tournament audience in the past four years. Maryland-Tennessee in the 2015 Elite Eight holds the top spot over that span (1.54M to 1.48M).
That strong performance did not carry into the Elite Eight. UConn-Oregon had a 0.9 and 1.3 million on ESPN Monday night, flat in ratings and down 4% in viewership from UConn-Texas last year (0.9, 1.35M) and flat and down 9% respectively from UConn-Dayton in 2015 (0.9, 1.4M).
South Carolina-Florida State had a 0.7 and 1.1 million later in the night, down 22% in ratings and 15% in viewership from Oregon State-Baylor last year (0.9, 1.3M) and down 30% and 27% respectively from Maryland-Tennessee in ’15 (1.0, 1.5M).
On Sunday, Mississippi State-Baylor scored a 0.8 (-11%) and 1.3 million (-5%) while Stanford-Notre Dame pulled a 0.7 (flat) and 1.0 million (-3%).
