2024 NCAA Tournament: TV Viewership

[visitingcock]

As relayed by @awhom111 :

Play-in Round
3/20 Presbyterian v Sac. Heart ESPNU 149k
Columbia v Vandy ESPNU 153k

03/21 Zona v Auburn ESPN2 236k
UT Martin v Holy Cross 196k

Round of 64 First Day: (Friday)
3/22 Studio ESPN2 114,000 .03
3/22 Michigan State-UNC ESPN2 357,000 .07
3/22 Maine-Ohio State ESPN 378,000 .08
3/22 Middle Tennessee-Louisville ESPN2 316,000 .04
3/22 Presbyterian-South Carolina ESPN 503,000 .09
3/22 Marshall-Virginia Tech ESPN2 252,000 .02
3/22 Rice-LSU ESPN 762,000 .15
3/22 FSU-Alabama ESPN2 256,000 .03
3/22 Maryland-Iowa State ESPN2 642,000 .09
3/22 Studio ESPN2 440,000 .06
3/22 Norfolk State-Stanford ESPN2 316,000 .04
3/22 Texas A&M-Nebraska ESPNU 156,000 .02

Round of 64 Second Day (Saturday)
3/23 Green Bay-Tennessee ESPN 819,000
3/23 Jackson State-UConn ABC 1,075,000
3/23 Fairfield-Indiana ESPN2 390,000
3/23 Kent State-Notre Dame ESPN 390,000
3/23 Holy Cross-Iowa ABC 3,225,000
3/23 Arizona-Syracuse ESPN2 356,000
3/23 Studio ESPN 303,000
3/23 Texas A&M-CC-USC ESPN 396,000
3/23 Princeton-West Virginia ESPN2 395,000
3/23 UC Irvine-Gonzaga ESPN2 295,000
3/23 Cal Baptist-UCLA ESPN2 306,000
3/23 South Dakota State-Utah ESPNU 111,000

Round of 32 Second Day (Sunday)
3/24 Duke-Ohio State ESPN 965,000
3/24 Studio ABC 543,000
3/24 UNC-South Carolina ABC 1,194,000
3/24 Colorado-Kansas State ESPN 760,000
3/24 Middle Tennessee-LSU ABC 2,008,000
3/24 Nebraska-Oregon State ESPN 730,000
3/24 Alabama-Texas ESPN 950,000
3/24 Baylor-Virginia Tech ESPN 1,052,000
3/24 Iowa State-Stanford ESPN 1,178,000

Round of 32 Second Day (Monday)
3/25 Ole Miss-Notre Dame ESPN 827,000
3/25 Tennessee-North Carolina State ESPN 1.23M
3/25 Syracuse-UConn ESPN 2.05M
3/25 Oklahoma-Indiana ESPN2 617,000
3/25 West Virginia-Iowa ESPN 4,901,000
3/25 Creighton-UCLA ESPN2 509,000
3/25 Kansas-USC ESPN 1.76M
3/25 Utah-Gonzaga ESPN2 501,000

Sweet 16 Friday
3/29 Oregon State-Notre Dame ESPN 1,204,000 .24
3/29 Indiana-South Carolina ESPN 2,105,000 .48
3/29 North Carolina State-Stanford ESPN 1,157,000 .24
3/29 Gonzaga-Texas ESPN 638,000 .13
Sweet 16 Saturday
3/30 LSU-UCLA ABC 3,826,000
3/30 Colorado-Iowa ABC 6,865,000
3/30 Baylor-USC ESPN 1,701,000
3/30 Duke-UConn ESPN 1,981,000

Elite Eight Sunday
3/31 Oregon State-South Carolina ABC 3,066,000
3/31 North Carolina State-Texas ABC 2,466,000

Elite Eight Monday
4/1 LSU-Iowa ESPN 12,301,000 3.08
4/1 UConn-USC ESPN 6,718,000 1.81

 

[Husky fanatic]

Average attendance for playin games was 855

 

[visitingcock]

Iowa and Caitlin are just killing it. Just over 3 million on Saturday and just under 5 million Monday. 8 million viewers in one weekend! Nobody else is even close.

Sweet 16 is gonna be incredible.

 

[BigTenGuy]

 

[LETTERL]

Round of 64 Second Day (Saturday)
3/23 Green Bay-Tennessee ESPN 819,000
3/23 Jackson State-UConn ABC 1,075,000
3/23 Fairfield-Indiana ESPN2 390,000
3/23 Kent State-Notre Dame ESPN 390,000
3/23 Holy Cross-Iowa ABC 3,225,000
3/23 Arizona-Syracuse ESPN2 356,000
3/23 Studio ESPN 303,000
3/23 Texas A&M-CC-USC ESPN 396,000
3/23 Princeton-West Virginia ESPN2 395,000
3/23 UC Irvine-Gonzaga ESPN2 295,000
3/23 Cal Baptist-UCLA ESPN2 306,000
3/23 South Dakota State-Utah ESPNU 111,000

Good heavens! Did the NC State/Chattanooga game draw 0 viewers?

 

[BRS24]

Women's NCAA Tournament ratings are on the rise, with or without Caitlin Clark

While everyone has their rightful attention on Caitlin Clark, the Women's NCAA Tournament is seeing increases in ratings everywhere else too.

awfulannouncing.com

 

[BigTenGuy]

SportsMediaWatch made clear today that last year's LSU-Iowa game is the 3rd most watched NCAA WBB tourney game, behind two of the very early NCAA title games:

1983 USC versus La. Tech 11.84 million (CBS)
1986 Texas versus USC 11.22 million (CBS)

#s 4-5 on the top 10 list are also from the 1980s. Hadn't seen this old 1980s info before (last year SportsMediaWatch listed ratings back to 1992). The complete top 10 list includes 9 games from the CBS era ending in 1995, and last year's title game. Makes you wonder, as others have, whether the shift to ESPN starting in 1996 was a big hindrance to growing the game.

Will be interesting to see how this year's viewership numbers compare to the current top 10 list.

The 10 most-watched NCAA women's basketball games

With Iowa and LSU in a rematch of their highly-viewed 2023 national championship, here are the ten most-watched women's tournament games on record.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

 

[Conndog]

UConn - Iowa in the semifinals, with all the publicity of Paige vs Caitlin, is going to really make the ratings explode!

 

[visitingcock]

UConn - Iowa in the semifinals, with all the publicity of Paige vs Caitlin, is going to really make the ratings explode!

One wonders how the Finals ratings will be if UConn knocks Iowa off. Will the Caitlin fangirls quit watching ?

 

[darrell]

 

[Vowelguy]

 

[bballnut90]

Couldn't have picked a better game to show case women's basketball between Clark's brilliance and Flau'jae's athleticism. Great night for women's basketball. Excited to see that record get shattered again on Friday.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

The Iowa-UConn game could set a new record.

 

[visitingcock]

Monday night zzESPN’s two elite 8 games had combined 29 million viewers!

 

[GamecockFam]

The Iowa-UConn game could set a new record.

I expect something similar to the last turnout, but probably a hair less. UConn vs Iowa doesn't have the same Heroes vs Villains narrative of the LSU/Iowa matchup and it is not a rematch of a recent national title game, so I don't see it sucking in as many people. With that said, I still expect it to be a huge number, like 10 million or so.

 

[GamecockFam]

You know, I've been thinking that one thing women's basketball has over the men's game is that the best players are around for 4 years, unlike in the men's game, which is mostly 1-and-done or two years max for the best players. I think that causes a narrative issue on the men's side because the constant turnover makes it hard to sell rematches and stars are leaving just when they make their name on a national scale. It's also hard to reenergize yourself as a fanbase to get reacquainted with entirely turned over rosters each season. While the portal makes some of that hazy in the women's game, lots of teams do stick together, and some super teams (like LSU) are formed. The idea of the multi-year narrative I think is stronger. It's similar to how the MCU became so popular...multi-year player and team narratives leading up to a pinnacle event (i.e., the Avengers movies). I hope ESPN realizes this and is also trying to sell the narrative for future seasons while we have all these eyeballs on the game...

 

[hoopsfan22]

The Iowa-UConn game could set a new record.

We'll see, but it's a late Friday night game which isn't a great time slot.

 

[BRS24]

It could have always been this way

Record-smashing ratings during March Madness come with a ping of sadness. (Plus: The whip-around.)

www.powerplays.news

That number is exhilarating, it’s affirming, it’s jaw-dropping. And it also makes me just a little bit sad.​

​

This potential has been there all along. The stars and the talent and the rivalries and the personalities and the commercial appeal have been hiding in plain sight for decades. And this potential wasn’t just hypothetical — there was proof that if you shone a spotlight on women’s basketball and told the stories of its players that people would tune in and watch.​

 

[TheFarmFan]

It could have always been this way

Record-smashing ratings during March Madness come with a ping of sadness. (Plus: The whip-around.)

www.powerplays.news

That number is exhilarating, it’s affirming, it’s jaw-dropping. And it also makes me just a little bit sad.​

​

This potential has been there all along. The stars and the talent and the rivalries and the personalities and the commercial appeal have been hiding in plain sight for decades. And this potential wasn’t just hypothetical — there was proof that if you shone a spotlight on women’s basketball and told the stories of its players that people would tune in and watch.​

+1 to this. I realize Arike is not popular around here, but when you think back to postseasons like 2018, where she had buzzer beaters to beat UConn and Miss St, it's hard not to believe a postseason like that would get huge, huge numbers with today's greater exposure to the women's game.

 

[visitingcock]

OP has been amended/updated

 

[Vowelguy]

It could have always been this way

Record-smashing ratings during March Madness come with a ping of sadness. (Plus: The whip-around.)

www.powerplays.news

​

I dunno. Seems pretty simplistic.

I dont think CBS "let its contract lapse" so much as the NCAA wanted to move away from the Saturday/Sunday format (rightly so). Doing so would've meant CBS airing the semifinals on a Friday night. 30 years ago, CBS is not giving up a night of programming, including preempting local news at its affiliates, to get just 7 million viewers (and likely less). That was table scraps viewers back then.

 

[BigTenGuy]

+1 to this. I realize Arike is not popular around here, but when you think back to postseasons like 2018, where she had buzzer beaters to beat UConn and Miss St, it's hard not to believe a postseason like that would get huge, huge numbers with today's greater exposure to the women's game.

Perhaps. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Sabrina had huge exposure while at Oregon. ESPN and the media generally primed the public to embrace her. But it didn’t take. She didn’t move the tv ratings needle at all.

 

[FanFromMaine]

Couldn't have picked a better game to show case women's basketball between Clark's brilliance and Flau'jae's athleticism. Great night for women's basketball. Excited to see that record get shattered again on Friday.

With respect, perhaps it was the Clark vs Reese show that was the draw…

 

[BigTenGuy]

Some interesting viewership data tidbits:

“tune-in actually increased significantly as the game went on, from over 5 million P2+ [in-home] viewers in the immediate pre-game to well over 12.5 million near game's end as Iowa and Clark pulled away from LSU to seal the win.”

“The audience for Clark-focused videos supports the idea that women’s basketball audiences are actually a broad group. On YouTube, 85% of those that watched videos about Clark since Nov. 1 were men. In general, audiences for videos about Clark have a significant overlap with “mainstream” sports coverage. While popular women’s basketball social video account Women Hooping has a 23% audience overlap with Clark, accounts like Bleacher Report (68%), NBA on ESPN (40%), CBS Sports (38%) show even higher overlap and speak to her crossover appeal.”

Audience Data Behind The Caitlin Clark Effect

 

[bballnut90]

With respect, perhaps it was the Clark vs Reese show that was the draw…

Agreed, but I'd expect that number to increase for the Final Four based on the hype of the Elite 8 game and the match up vs. UCONN. A ton of fans stayed on to watch UCONN/SC too.