CBS' NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Selection Show led all sports telecasts last week with a 4.0 final Nielsen rating. That figure is down slightly from a 4.1 rating last year. CBS ended up with ratings gains for coverage of the men's conference championships last weekend. The net saw increases for the Big Ten Championship (+8.7%), Pac-10 Championship (+30.8%) and Atlantic 10 Championship (+33.3%). The net's coverage of the Conference USA Championship was flat. ABC's coverage of the SEC Championship saw a ratings drop of 30.8%. NBC saw year-over-year ratings gains for the WGC-Cadillac Championship on both Sunday (+21.1%) and Saturday (+7.7%), while the Blackhawks-Capitals telecast was flat compared to the same matchup on the same weekend last year. ABC was down for its NBA telecast last Sunday, which featured Magic-Suns. Ratings for the game were down 41.7% from the comparable Celtics-Cavaliers game last year. The charts below list final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts. Figures for Fox were not available at presstime (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
| TELECAST |
DATE |
NET |
TIME (ET) |
RAT. |
VIEWERS (000) |
NCAA Men's Basketball Championship
Selection Show |
3/13 |
CBS |
6:00-7:00pm |
4.0 |
n/a |
NCAA Basketball: Big Ten
Championship: Ohio State-Penn State |
3/13 |
CBS |
3:24-5:22pm |
2.5 |
3,735 |
WGC-Cadillac Championship:
Final Round |
3/13 |
NBC |
3:05-7:00pm |
2.3 |
3,316 |
NCAA Basketball: SEC Championship:
Kentucky-Florida |
3/13 |
ABC |
1:00-3:06pm |
1.8 |
2,935 |
NCAA Basketball: Pac-10
Championship: Washington-Arizona |
3/12 |
CBS |
6:09-8:39pm |
1.7 |
2,572 |
NCAA Basketball: Big Ten Semifinal:
Penn State-Michigan State |
3/12 |
CBS |
4:06-6:09pm |
1.6 |
2,536 |
NCAA Basketball: Big Ten Semifinal:
Ohio State-Michigan |
3/12 |
CBS |
1:47-3:43pm |
1.7 |
2,505 |
| NBA: Magic-Suns |
3/13 |
ABC |
3:26-6:02pm |
1.4 |
2,101 |
WGC-Cadillac Championship:
Third Round |
3/12 |
NBC |
2:00-6:00pm |
1.4 |
2,025 |
| "NBA Countdown" |
3/13 |
ABC |
3:06-3:26pm |
1.4 |
n/a |
NCAA Basketball: SEC Semifinal:
Kentucky-Alabama |
3/12 |
ABC |
1:00-3:07pm |
1.1 |
1,607 |
NCAA Basketball: SEC Semifinal:
Florida-Vanderbilt |
3/12 |
ABC |
3:24-5:30pm |
1.0 |
1,576 |
| NHL: Blackhawks-Capitals |
3/13 |
NBC |
12:30-3:05pm |
0.8 |
1,241 |
NCAA Basketball: Atlantic-10
Championship: Richmond-Dayton |
3/13 |
CBS |
1:00-3:10pm |
0.8 |
1,180 |
| NCAA Basketball: Conference USA Championship: Memphis-UTEP |
3/12 |
CBS |
11:30am-1:47pm |
0.8 |
1,139 |
| "Road to the Final Four" |
3/13 |
CBS |
12:00-1:00pm |
0.8 |
n/a |
| Sprint U.S. Snowboard GP (taped) |
3/12 |
NBC |
1:00-2:00pm |
0.5 |
669 |
| TELECAST |
DATE |
NET |
TIME (ET) |
RAT. |
VIEWERS (000) |
| NBA: Lakers-Heat |
3/10 |
TNT |
7:15-9:51pm |
3.1 |
4,844 |
NCAA Basketball: Big East
Championship: UConn-Louisville |
3/12 |
ESPN |
9:00-11:18pm |
2.0 |
3,291 |
| "Fab Five" |
3/13 |
ESPN |
9:00-11:00pm |
1.8 |
2,746 |
| NBA: Knicks-Mavericks |
3/10 |
TNT |
9:51pm-12:25am |
1.6 |
2,429 |
NCAA Basketball: Big 12
Championship: Kansas-Texas |
3/12 |
ESPN |
6:12-8:17pm |
1.5 |
2,351 |
| "College Gamenight: Bracketology" |
3/13 |
ESPN |
7:00-9:00pm |
1.6 |
2,340 |
NCAA Basketball: Big East Semifinal:
Connecticut-Syracuse |
3/11 |
ESPN |
7:00-9:23pm |
1.4 |
2,304 |
NCAA Basketball: Big East Semifinal:
Louisville-Notre Dame |
3/11 |
ESPN |
9:44pm-12:09am |
1.3 |
2,238 |
NCAA Basketball: ACC
Championship: Duke-North Carolina |
3/13 |
ESPN |
1:00-3:05pm |
1.4 |
2,076 |
| "College GameDay" |
3/12 |
ESPN |
8:17-9:00pm |
1.2 |
1,768 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
HITTING THE GREEN: Golf Channel's first and second round coverage of the WGC-Cadillac Championship last Thursday and Friday averaged 1.07 million viewers for combined live and replay coverage, marking the best audience for the event's early rounds since '02, when coverage aired on USA Network (Golf Channel). Golf Channel's Erik Kuselias said TV "ratings have been unprecedentedly good so far through the first two months of the golf season," and the main reason is "they decided to go to sexier pairings or groupings" ("Morning Drive," Golf Channel, 3/18).
NOTES: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic averaged a 2.18 local rating in the DC market for last Friday's Hurricanes-Capitals game, marking "the 15th time the Caps have hit at least 2.0 this season" through 59 broadcasts. Last season, the Capitals earned at least a 2.0 local rating "14 times in their 76 CSN broadcasts." Two seasons ago, the team's local ratings "didn't hit the 2.0 ratings mark until the playoffs" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 3/14)….TNT's Lakers-Heat game last Thursday earned a 3.1 U.S. rating and 4.844 million viewers, marking the third most-watched NBA game on cable this season. Through 44 telecasts, the NBA on TNT is averaging a 1.6 rating and 2.446 million viewers, up 31% and 35%, respectively, from a 1.2 rating and 1.814 million viewers at the same point last season (Turner Sports).
