NCAA Tournament ratings held steady as a whole Friday night, but a historic upset generated a huge increase for TNT.
#16 seed UMBC’s historic upset of #1 Virginia earned a 2.0 rating and 3.53 million viewers on TNT Friday night, up 49% in ratings and 54% in viewership from last year (MSU-Miami: 1.4, 2.3M) and up 157% and 94% respectively from 2016 (Xavier-Weber St.: 0.8, 1.3M).
The Retrievers’ stunning rout — the first time in the history of the men’s tournament that a #16 seed has defeated a #1 — was the third-most watched opening round NCAA Tournament game on cable (dates back to 2011). The top two games both involved North Carolina, against Florida Gulf Coast in 2016 (3.58M) and Providence in 2014 (3.74M).
Despite the strong numbers, UMBC-UVA was not the top game in its TV window. CBS had a 2.3 (-4%) and 3.8 million (-7%) for the competing Syracuse-TCU matchup.
In addition, the combined audience actually declined across CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV. The four networks grossed 9.60 million late Friday night, down 1.1% from last year (9.71M) and down 1.4% from 2016 (9.73M). Steep declines on TBS and TruTV offset the big jump on TNT. On TBS, Florida State-Missouri fell 24% in ratings (to 0.85) and 22% in viewership (to 1.4M). On TruTV, Clemson-New Mexico State sank 45% (to 0.5) and 44% (to 844K).
Earlier Friday night, CBS and Turner combined for 9.73 million viewers — up 2% from last year (9.56M) but down 2% from 2016 (9.95M).
CBS led the way with a 2.7 (-4%) and 4.5 million (-3%) for Michigan State-Bucknell. TNT followed at a 1.3 and 2.2 million (+27%) for Kansas State-Creighton. TruTV snuck in at third with a 0.9 and 1.53 million (+59%) for Auburn’s near-upset against the College of Charleston. TBS brought up the rear with a 0.9 and 1.48 million (-33%) for Xavier-Texas Southern.
Combined figures for the daytime windows were not available. Nevada-Texas led the daytime slate with 1.8 million on TBS (-5%), followed by West Virginia-Murray State (1.5M, -3%) and Marshall-Wichita State (1.2M, +8%) on TNT.
According to Sports Business Daily, the NCAA Tournament has averaged a combined 8.28 million viewers through Saturday’s games, down 3% from last year (8.55M). That rises to 8.7 million including streaming viewership on March Madness Live, up 2% from last year (8.6M). Figures for the individual weekend windows will be available on Tuesday.
[Numbers from Programming Insider 3.19, Sports Business Daily 3.19]
