The NCAA Tournament has averaged 9.8 million viewers to date across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV, the fourth-highest event total since '93. The average for this year to date is up 7% from last year, which was drawing 9.2 million viewers headed into the Final Four. Factoring in Total Audience Delivery via March Madness Live, the tournament is averaging 10.2 million viewers to this point, which would mark the second-highest total since '91. TAD was not reported until last year's tournament, which averaged 9.5 million viewers through the Elite Eight.
MATCH MAKER: NBC saw another decline for the final day of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship, but Tiger Woods' presence gave a boost to Saturday's coverage. Sunday's final, which saw Kevin Kisner defeat Matt Kuchar, drew 2.0 million viewers, down from 2.5 millions last year, when Bubba Watson blew out Kisner in the final. Saturday's telecast drew 3.2 million viewers, up from 2.3 million last year. Woods defeated Rory McIlroy in early play Saturday and lost on the 18th hole to Lucas Bjerregaard in the quarterfinals after leading for much of the match. Two years ago, NBC drew 2.3 million viewers for its final day coverage.
GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING: ESPN2 averaged 711,000 viewers on Sunday for the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix (11:00am ET start), marking the largest U.S. audience on record for the event. That number was up 3% over last year's race, which drew 692,000 viewers. CNBC's telecast of the event in '17 drew 413,000 viewers. Sunday's race was also the second-biggest U.S. cable audience for an F1 race on record, trailing the 820,000 mark for last year's Monaco Grand Prix on ESPN.
JUST FOR KICKS: Univision on Saturday night drew 1.2 million viewers for the Liga MX Club America-Tigres match.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
|
TELECAST
|
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Elite Eight: Michigan State-Duke
|
3/31
|
CBS
|
5:00-7:15pm
|
9.4
|
16,197
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Elite Eight: Auburn-Kentucky
|
3/31
|
CBS
|
2:15-5:00pm
|
6.4
|
10,493
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Elite Eight: Virginia-Purdue
|
3/30
|
TBS
|
8:45-11:10pm
|
5.9
|
10,486
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Sweet 16: Duke-Virginia Tech
|
3/29
|
CBS
|
9:45pm-12:15am
|
6.1
|
10,072
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Elite Eight: Texas Tech-Gonzaga
|
3/30
|
TBS
|
6:00-8:29pm
|
4.5
|
7,722
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Sweet 16: Michigan State-LSU
|
3/29
|
CBS
|
7:00-9:30pm
|
3.6
|
5,790
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Sweet 16:
Auburn-
North Carolina
|
3/29
|
TBS
|
7:19-9:42pm
|
3.2
|
5,616
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Sweet 16: Purdue-Tennessee
|
3/28
|
TBS
|
7:22-10:05pm
|
2.9
|
4,879
|
|
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 (Texas)
|
3/31
|
Fox
|
3:15-6:45pm
|
2.3
|
3,652
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Sweet 16: Virginia-Oregon
|
3/28
|
TBS
|
10:29pm-12:31am
|
2.2
|
3,564
|
|
NCAA Tournament: Sweet 16: Kentucky-Houston
|
3/29
|
TBS
|
10:01pm-12:16am
|
2.1
|
3,414
|
|
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play: Semifinals
|
3/30
|
NBC
|
2:00-6:15pm
|
2.2
|
3,175
|
|
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play: Finals
|
3/31
|
NBC
|
3:00-7:00pm
|
1.3
|
2,016
|
|
MLB: Braves-Phillies
|
3/31
|
ESPN
|
7:56-10:33pm
|
1.1
|
1,866
|
|
NBA: Rockets-Bucks
|
3/26
|
TNT
|
8:14-10:27pm
|
0.9
|
1,412
|
|
NBA: Pacers-Thunder
|
3/27
|
ESPN
|
8:13-10:38pm
|
0.9
|
1,289
|
|
MLB: Red Sox-Mariners
|
3/28
|
ESPN
|
7:02-10:48pm
|
0.8
|
1,186
|
|
NCAA D-II Basketball Championship:
Point Loma-
Northwest Missouri State
|
3/30
|
CBS
|
3:00-5:15pm
|
0.7
|
1,012
|
|
NHL: Rangers-Flyers
|
3/31
|
NBC
|
12:15-3:00pm
|
0.5
|
757
|
|
Special Olympics (taped)
|
3/30
|
ABC
|
3:00-5:00pm
|
0.4
|
496
|
