Over one million viewers tuned into the Connecticut women’s basketball team’s record victory Tuesday night.
Connecticut’s blowout win over Florida State earned a 0.8 U.S. rating (based on 878,000 HHs) and 1.171 million viewers on ESPN2 Tuesday night. The game was Connecticut’s 89th straight victory, a record for a men’s or women’s Division I basketball team.
For some perspective, ESPN2 averaged a 0.3 U.S. rating and 482,000 viewers for men’s college basketball games during the 2009-10 regular season (ESPN averaged a 0.9 and 1.359 million).
Tuesday’s game also drew a higher rating and more viewers than every single WNBA and MLS game — regular season or playoffs — during their respective 2010 seasons.
The game drew an 18.1 rating in Hartford, the highest rating for a regular season women’s college basketball game since 2003. The 18.1 even topped the local rating for Connecticut’s win in the 2010 National Championship Game (17.6).
