CBS finished with 6.2 million viewers for the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday, marking the program’s best audience since 6.8 million viewers in ’14. The program switched back to a 60-minute format this season. Last year, TBS aired the program and drew a record-low 2.5 million viewers for a two-hour format. When CBS last had the show in ’17, it drew 4.9 million viewers for the 90-minute format (which at the time was a record low audience).
|
NCAA TOURNAMENT SELECTION SHOW TREND
|
|
YEAR
|
NETWORK
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
LENGTH
|
|
'19
|
CBS
|
6,207
|
1 hour
|
|
'18
|
TBS
|
2,497
|
2 hours
|
|
'17
|
CBS
|
4,883
|
90 minutes
|
|
'16
|
CBS
|
5,245
|
2 hours
|
ATLANTIC WALL: The ACC last week helped deliver ESPN its two most-watched championship week hoops games on record. Leading the way was Part 3 of this season's Duke-North Carolina rivalry. Even with a 9:30pm ET start on a Friday night, the ACC Tourney semifinal led all games last week with 4.2 million viewers. That is now ESPN’s most-viewed championship week game on record. Ranking second now is Sunday’s ACC Championship, as Duke-Florida State drew 4.1 million viewers. The record coming into this season was the UNC-Duke ACC title game from ’98 (4.0 million viewers). Two years ago, the same Duke-UNC semifinal matchup in the ACC Tourney in the 7:00pm window drew just 2.97 million viewers on ESPN. Meanwhile, Tennessee-Kentucky on Saturday afternoon drew 3.3 million viewers, marking ESPN’s most-watched SEC semifinal on record. For all of championship week telecasts, ESPN and ESPN2 were up 10% from ’18.
NOTES: Fox and FS1 averaged 283,000 viewers for the Big East Tournament this year, down 26% from ’18. The Villanova-Seton Hall title game on Fox on Saturday night drew 1.1 million viewers, down 24% from Villanova-Providence last year, which was an all-time high for Fox....UniMas last Wednesday (with a simulcast on Univision Deportes) drew 562,000 viewers for FC Barcelona-Lyon, marking the most-watched UEFA Champions League Round of 16 match since ’15, regardless of language. It also was the fifth-best UCL Round of 16 match on record.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NCAA Tournament Selection Show |
3/17
|
CBS
|
6:00-7:00pm
|
n/a
|
6,207
|
| PGA Tour: Players Championship: Final Round |
3/17
|
NBC
|
1:00-6:00pm
|
2.8
|
4,191
|
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
Auto Club 400 (Fontana) |
3/17
|
Fox
|
3:51-6:45pm
|
2.4
|
4,178
|
College basketball: ACC Semifinal:
Duke-North Carolina |
3/15
|
ESPN
|
9:33-11:51pm
|
2.6
|
4,150
|
College basketball: ACC Championship:
Duke-Florida State |
3/16
|
ESPN
|
8:30-10:41pm
|
2.5
|
4,063
|
College basketball: Big Ten Championship:
Michigan State-Michigan |
3/17
|
CBS
|
3:30-5:45pm
|
2.4
|
3,939
|
College basketball: SEC Semifinal:
Tennessee-Kentucky |
3/16
|
ESPN
|
3:19-5:41pm
|
2.0
|
3,285
|
| PGA Tour: Players Championship: Third Round |
3/16
|
NBC
|
2:00-7:00pm
|
2.1
|
3,144
|
| NBA: Thunder-Warriors |
3/16
|
ABC
|
8:30-11:01pm
|
1.7
|
2,697
|
College basketball: Big 12 Championship:
Iowa State-Kansas |
3/16
|
ESPN
|
6:06-8:12pm
|
1.6
|
2,516
|
College basketball: ACC Quarterfinal:
Duke-Syracuse |
3/14
|
ESPN
|
9:27-11:46pm
|
1.6
|
2,449
|
| NBA: Warriors-Rockets |
3/13
|
ESPN
|
9:38-11:58pm
|
1.6
|
2,415
|
College basketball: SEC Championship:
Auburn-Tennessee |
3/17
|
ESPN
|
12:56-3:10pm
|
1.5
|
2,237
|
College basketball: Big Ten semifinal:
Michigan State-Wisconsin |
3/16
|
CBS
|
1:00-3:15pm
|
1.4
|
2,061
|
College basketball: Pac-12 Championship:
Oregon-Washington |
3/16
|
ESPN
|
10:41pm-12:38am
|
1.2
|
1,991
|
College basketball: Big Ten semifinal:
Michigan-Minnesota |
3/16
|
CBS
|
3:29-5:30pm
|
1.3
|
1,953
|
| NBA: 76ers-Bucks |
3/17
|
ABC
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
1.3
|
1,951
|
| "NBA Countdown" |
3/16
|
ABC
|
8:00-8:30pm
|
1.2
|
1,769
|
College basketball: ACC Semifinal:
Florida State-Virginia |
3/15
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:12pm
|
1.1
|
1,618
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Chivas |
3/16
|
Univision
|
9:03-11:06pm
|
0.8
|
1,528
|
| "Bracketology" |
3/17
|
ESPN
|
7:00-9:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,486
|
College basketball: Mountain West Championship:
San Diego State-Utah State |
3/16
|
CBS
|
6:00-8:15pm
|
0.9
|
1,317
|
College basketball: A-10 Championship:
Saint Louis-St. Bonaventure |
3/17
|
CBS
|
1:00-3:15pm
|
0.9
|
1,284
|
College basketball: Big East Championship:
Villanova-Seton Hall |
3/16
|
Fox
|
6:38-9:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,131
|
| Liga MX: Pachuca-Cruz Azul |
3/16
|
Univision
|
6:55-9:03pm
|
0.4
|
694
|
| Six Nations Rugby: Ireland-Wales (taped) |
3/16
|
NBC
|
12:00-2:00pm
|
0.4
|
577
|
| ATP/WTA: BNP Paribas Open: Semifinals |
3/16
|
ABC
|
2:00-6:00pm
|
0.4
|
528
|
