NCAA title game equals highest TV rating since '99

NEW YORK (AP)

The NCAA championship game matched its highest preliminary television rating since 1999.

Duke's 61-59 win over Butler on Monday night on CBS earned a 16.0 overnight rating and 25 share. That's up 34 percent from the 11.9/19 for North Carolina's blowout against Michigan State last year.

It tied the 16.0/23 for North Carolina-Illinois in 2005 as the best since a 16.9/25 in 1999 for Connecticut-Duke.

The entire tournament averaged a 6.6 overnight rating, up 5 percent from last season.

Ratings represent the percentage of all households with televisions tuned into a program. Shares represent the percentage of all homes with TVs in use at the time. Overnight ratings measure the nation's largest markets.

guess this means we're gonna be stuck listening to more cfb playoff crap

NCAA title game TV audience up 34% over last year.

CBS' coverage of the NCAA men's basketball final proved that the tournament doesn't need big-name teams to draw big on TV — at least when there's a Cinderella angle and the championship game isn't decided until the final seconds.

Ratings for Duke's 61-59 victory over Butler were up 34% over last year's North Carolina-Michigan State final. The network says Duke-Butler drew a 16 overnight rating, which translates into 16% of TV households in 56 urban markets.

The Duke-Butler audience also tied the 16% for North Carolina-Illinois final in 2005 as the highest overnight rating for the title game since Connecticut-Duke in 1999, which drew a 16.9.

And for anybody who thinks Monday's game started too late, they should note the ratings built as the night wore on. Between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m. ET, the game's rating peaked at 20.3%.

Heading into Monday's game, CBS overall tournament average rating was up 4% from last year.


USA TODAY

soonerdawg said:

guess this means we're gonna be stuck listening to more cfb playoff crap

Click to expand...

+1

Luckily, I cannot see the BCS go away anytime soon. That said ... I am sort of for a plus-one format. But, what will happen if that goes through is #5 will complain and, in a few years, it'll be eight teams ... then 16, etc.

The probably expansion of the NCAA Hoops tournament is proof enough.