Villanova's Blowout Leads To Lowest NCAA Hoops Title Game Rating

Villanova’s blowout win over Michigan last night delivered the lowest overnight rating on record for a men’s basketball national championship game. TBS, TNT and truTV combined to draw a 10.3 overnight for Villanova’s 79-62 win. The 17-point margin of victory equals North Carolina's win over Michigan State in ’09 as the most-lopsided final in the past two decades. The previous low overnight rating was an 11.2 overnight that CBS drew in ’04 for UConn’s 82-73 win over Georgia Tech. CBS last year drew a 14.5 for UNC’s win over Gonzaga. Two years ago, which was Turner Sports’ first time with the title game, the nets averaged a 12.0 overnight for Villanova’s last-second win over UNC. Despite the new low, Villanova-Michigan delivered Turner Sports a primetime win among all networks last night (cable or broadcast). The game last night peaked at an 11.5 rating from 10:00-10:15pm ET during the first half. With the game turning into a blowout, that figure dipped to a 7.0 rating during the final 15 minutes of the telecast from 11:15-11:30pm. Detroit led all markets with a 21.4 local rating, followed by Philadelphia with a 21.2 rating (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

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NETWORK REVIEWS: The Athletic's Stewart Mandel‏ noted TBS "botched ... badly" a cutaway as a skirmish began between Villanova's Omari Spellman and Michigan's Moe Wagner. Mandel: "I only know from Twitter there was a double technical." NBCSports.com's Kevin McGuire noted announcer Jim Nantz was trying to explain "what’s going on after the play and TBS is too concerned with going to commercial" (TWITTER.com, 4/2). In Cleveland, Marc Bona writes it was "nice to see TBS with remote-coverage cutaways to fans in both the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Connelly Center in Philadelphia." However, the "flaming tracer of 'True View' is not necessary on three-point shot replays" (CLEVELAND.com, 4/3).