Kansas-Duke hit an Elite Eight ratings high, even as viewership slipped.
Sunday’s Kansas-Duke NCAA Tournament regional final had a 9.2 rating and 15.44 million viewers on CBS, up 3% in ratings but down a fraction of a percent in viewership from last year (UNC-Kentucky: 8.9, 15.47M) and up 58% and 53% respectively from 2016, when coverage aired in a later window on TBS (UNC-Notre Dame: 5.8, 10.1M).
The 9.2 rating is the highest for any Elite Eight game since 2005 (MSU-Kentucky: 10.4). The previous mark was an 8.9 for UNC-Kentucky last year, Duke-Gonzaga in 2014, Kentucky-Michigan in 2014 and Kentucky-UNC in 2011.
The TV audience was only the third-highest since 2005, behind last year and Louisville-Duke in 2013 (15.6M). Including streaming, the game had 15.7 million viewers according to Sports Business Daily. Previous TV+streaming figures were not available.
Viewership peaked at 24.9 million from 7:15-7:30 PM ET, again per Sports Business Daily, up 13% from last year’s peak of 22.1 million. That is no small feat given the overall game audience declined. It is almost certain that some of those viewers were tuning in for a heavily-hyped episode of 60 Minutes, which had 22.1 million.
Compared to other sports, Kansas-Duke drew a higher rating than every non-Finals NBA game since 2002 (Lakers-Kings Game 7: 14.4). Keep in mind the NBA has more recently delivered a larger audience, 16.0 million for Thunder-Warriors Game 7 in 2016.
It also topped every MLB telecast — excluding the World Series — since 2009 (Angels-Yankees Game 6: 9.3, 15.5M).
Earlier in the day, Villanova-Texas Tech had a 5.4 (-8%) and 8.8 million (-9%). It posted the third-lowest rating and viewership in the early Sunday window since 2009, ahead of only 2016 (Syracuse-UVA: 4.5, 7.6M) and 2012 (Kentucky-Baylor: 5.0, 8.2M).
[Wknd. numbers from ShowBuzz Daily 3.27, Sports Business Daily 3.27]
