Overnight ratings held steady for the Women’s Final Four. Also: a channel switch lifted the NIT Championship; the D-II title game hit a multi-year low; Bryce Harper‘s return to Washington was a boon for NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Overnight ratings flat for Women’s Final Four
Friday’s Notre Dame-UConn Women’s NCAA Tournament national semifinal delivered a 1.5 overnight rating on ESPN2, even with the same matchup last year, and down 21% from Mississippi State-UConn in 2017 (1.9).
The Huskies’ third-straight loss in the national semifinals earned a 14.9 rating in Hartford, a season-high — but down 11% from last year (16.7) and down 10% from 2017 (16.6).
Earlier in the night, Baylor-Oregon had a 1.0 — even with both Mississippi State-Louisville last year and South Carolina-Stanford in 2017.
The game scored a 7.3 rating in Austin, Tex., and a 1.9 in Portland, both season-highs.
Move from ESPN2 to ESPN boosts NIT Championship
Thursday’s Texas-Lipscomb NIT Championship earned a 0.54 rating and 805,000 viewers on ESPN, up 16% in viewership from last year, when the final aired on ESPN2 due to MLB Opening Day (Penn State-Utah: 693K). Compared to the 2017 game on ESPN, TCU-Georgia Tech, ratings fell 21% (from 0.68) and viewership 26% (from 1.08M).
D-II title game hits low
Last Saturday’s Northwest Missouri State-Point Loma NCAA Division II men’s basketball championship drew a 0.7 rating and 1.01 million viewers on CBS, down 16% in ratings and 18% in viewership from last year (Ferris State-Northern State: 0.9, 1.24M) and down a tick and 12% respectively from 2017 (NW Missouri St.-Fairmont State: 0.8, 1.15M).
It was the least-watched D-II title game since at least 2013.
Harper’s return to Washington lifts Phillies to seven-year high
Tuesday’s Phillies-Nationals Major League Baseball game, which marked Phillies OF Bryce Harper‘s return to Washington, scored a 7.7 rating on NBC Sports Philadelphia — the highest for any regular season game on the RSN since July 2012 (Phillies-Mets: 8.1). That includes Flyers and Sixers games.
[Numbers from ESPN PR/Twitter 4.6 a, b; Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 4.2; NBC Sports PR]
