The ’17 NCAA Tournament averaged 10.83 million viewers across TNT, TBS, CBS and truTV, marking the event’s second-best figure over the past 23 years, when the ’93 tourney averaged 12.7 million viewers. The figure is behind only the 11.3 million viewers seen in ’15, when CBS carried the title game and the semifinals aired on cable TV. This year’s average is up 16% from last year, when the complete Final Four aired on cable TV. The ’14 Tourney averaged 10.5 million viewers. Monday’s North Carolina-Gonzaga title game finished with just under 23 million viewers on CBS, up 30% from last year, when TNT, TBS and truTV combined to average 17.75 million viewers for the Villanova-UNC matchup. However, UNC-Gonzaga is down from 28.26 million viewers for Duke-Wisconsin in '15 (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
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NCAA TOURNEY AVG. VIEWERSHIP TREND
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YEAR
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NETWORK(S)
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VIEWERS (000)
|
|
'17
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CBS, TNT, TBS, truTV
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10,827
|
|
'16
|
CBS, TNT, TBS, truTV
|
9,300
|
|
'15
|
CBS, TNT, TBS, truTV
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11,300
|
|
'14
|
CBS, TNT, TBS, truTV
|
10,500
|
|
'13
|
CBS, TNT, TBS, truTV
|
10,700
|
|
'12
|
CBS, TNT, TBS, truTV
|
9,750
|
|
'11
|
CBS, TNT, TBS, truTV
|
10,200
|
|
'10
|
CBS
|
9,500
|
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NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TREND
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|
YEAR
|
NETWORK(S)
|
VIEWERS (000)
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MATCHUP
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'17
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CBS
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22,998
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North Carolina-Gonzaga
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'16
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TBS/TNT/truTV
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17,752
|
Villanova-North Carolina
|
|
'15
|
CBS
|
28,263
|
Duke-Wisconsin
|
|
'14
|
CBS
|
21,196
|
UConn-Kentucky
|
|
'13
|
CBS
|
23,426
|
Louisville-Michigan
|
|
'12
|
CBS
|
20,869
|
Kentucky-Kansas
|
|
'11
|
CBS
|
20,055
|
UConn-Butler
|
|
'10
|
CBS
|
23,944
|
Duke-Butler
|
|
'09
|
CBS
|
17,649
|
North Carolina-Michigan State
|
|
'08
|
CBS
|
19,501
|
Kansas-Memphis
|
|
'07
|
CBS
|
19,563
|
Florida-Ohio State
|
|
'06
|
CBS
|
17,543
|
Florida-UCLA
|
|
'05
|
CBS
|
23,895
|
North Carolina-Illinois
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A SUCKER FOR ROMANCE: In DC, Rick Maese writes even as social media and talk radio "sharpened their knives, upset with officiating that slowed" the flow of Monday's title game, CBS' Jim Nantz "wouldn’t let the difficult game ruin his night just as he wouldn’t let it spoil the broadcast." For Nantz, the azaleas are "always blooming, and the magnolias are always majestic." Nantz: “I’m looking at the world through a very positive prism." In the middle of a week that is the "envy of every sportscaster and most sports fans -- Final Four, followed immediately by the Masters -- Nantz remains a relic of sorts as broadcasting has turned into a showcase of provocateurs who are rewarded for being loud, edgy and contrarian." Even as the world around him -- in sports, in media, in politics, in general -- is "becoming increasingly cynical, one of its signature voices and storytellers is a hopeless romantic" (WASHINGTON POST, 4/5).
