The UConn Huskies are a very good team and are the champions of college basketball. But they continue to be bad for television ratings. Monday’s UConn-San Diego State NCAA men’s basketball national championship averaged a 7.8 rating and 14.69 million viewers on CBS, down 15% in ratings and 14% in viewership from Kansas-North Carolina on TBS, TNT and TruTV last year (9.1, 17.05M) and the lowest rated and least-watched title game on record.
Baylor vs. Gonzaga 2021 Final a ratings loser
The previous lows for a title game on CBS was for Baylor’s rout of Gonzaga two years ago. The past three title games rank among the four least-watched on record.
Viewers are tuning out the Huskies
UConn has played in two of the five least-watched title games overall. It’s 2004 win over Georgia Tech ranks fifth making it the only team with multiple games in the bottom five.
The Huskies’ wire-to-wire still delivered the largest basketball audience of the past year, surpassing last year’s NBA Finals clincher (Warriors-Celtics Game 6: 7.5, 13.99M).
Women’s TV numbers hit record highs
Sunday’s battle between LSU and Iowa for the women’s NCAA basketball title drew record numbers on ESPN. The Tigers/Hawkeye’s battle drew an average of 9.9 million viewers, making it the most viewed NCAA women’s basketball final in television history. Executives say interest in Iowa star Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese fueled the ratings increase.
Angel Reese called Caitlin Clark a h*e on national tv in a national championship game 💀💀💀💀pic.twitter.com/a6dRWZNo1I
— John (@iam_johnw) April 2, 2023
Record numbers for ESPN
Peak viewership hovered around 12.6 million views and overall viewership was about double the viewership of the championship game last year. It was the most viewed college sporting event ever on ESPN+, the sports network’s streaming platform, the network said. The game was, for the first time in decades, on ABC, ESPN’s parent network.
The preliminary viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen were just the latest in a record-breaking tournament for the women’s game. This year saw the best tournament attendance (357,542), the highest scoring final (102-85), the highest scoring half in a final (59 points by LSU and Clark’s performance in the round of 8 with the first 40-point triple-double in a Division I NCAA tournament, men’s or women’s.
Compared to college football’s national championship — a 65-7 Georgia wipeout of TCU in January — the title game was no match for a 8.7 and 17.22 million on the ESPN family of networks.
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