It was not the most compelling matchup on paper, but North Carolina-Oregon delivered one of the largest Final Four audiences in nearly 20 years.
UNC-Oregon scored a 10.4 final rating and 18.8 million viewers in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament Final Four on CBS, up 42% in ratings and 45% in viewership from UNC-Syracuse last year (7.3, 12.9M) but down 16% and 17% respectively from Wisconsin-Kentucky in 2015 (12.4, 22.6M), both of which aired on TBS, TNT and TruTV.
The Tar Heels’ narrow win, which peaked with 20.5 million viewers in the fast-nationals, generated the second-largest Final Four audience since 1998. The 2015 Wisconsin-Kentucky game, which ended the Wildcats’ undefeated run, holds the top spot. No other Final Four games since 2002 have exceeded 17.5 million.
The 10.4 rating is the second-highest for any Final Four game since 2005.
Overall, UNC-Oregon ranks as the most-watched college basketball game since the 2015 Duke-Wisconsin national championship (28.3M) — topping last year’s Villanova-UNC title game on TBS, TNT and TruTV (17.8M).
Compared to other sports, Saturday’s game had fewer viewers than college football’s Final Four, Alabama-Washington in the Peach Bowl (19.3M) and Clemson-Ohio State in the Fiesta (19.2M). It did top three of last year’s seven NBA Finals games (Games 2-4) and two of seven World Series contests (Games 2 and 4).
(Sat. numbers from CBS; additional info from ShowBuzz Daily 4.4)
