The classic NCAA Tournament National Championship Game between Villanova and North Carolina was the most watched sporting event in Orlando on Monday night with an average number of viewers of 140,421 according to Nielsen.
The number is significantly down from last year’s National Championship game between Duke and Wisconsin which garnered 264,918 viewers.
Why the major drop off? There are a couple of postential reasons.
The major reason for the numbers being down is the game did not air on a network channel. Last year’s title game aired on CBS whereas this year’s title game aired for the first time on cable channel TBS. More homes have CBS available than TBS.
Orlando was just like the rest of the country as Villanova’s 77-74 win over North Carolina delivered a 10.6 rating and 17.8 million viewers across TBS, TNT and TruTV, according to SportsMediaWatch.com. The number is down 34 percent in ratings and 37 percent in viewership from Duke/Wisconsin last year (16.0, 28.3M) and down 15 percent and 16 percent respectively from Connecticut/Kentucky in 2014 (12.4, 21.2M).
The 10.6 rating is the lowest ever for the National Championship Game, falling below the previous mark of 10.8 for North Carolina’s last appearance against Michigan State in 2009.
This year marks just the second time ratings for the game have fallen below the 11.0 mark.
Next year the Championship Game returns to CBS while TBS gets it back in 2018 as the networks will rotate the title game.
One has to question the NCAA’s decision to have the title game on cable considering the strong numbers and tradition it has with the game on CBS. Just like moving the College Football Playoff Semifinal to December 31, the NCAA is limiting the numbers of viewers it can get for its biggest sporting events.
Still these games are getting big viewerships as much of the sports calendar is completely cleared for this game to take the stage.
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four was Orlando viewers’ choice last week. Saturday’s Final Four game between North Carolina and Syracuse was the most-watched sporting event in Orlando with 88,890 viewers on TBS according to Nielsen. The second most-watched sporting event was also the NCAA Final Four game on Saturday Villanova’s win over Oklahoma on TBS garnering 74,118.
Overall North Carolina was involved in three of the four most watched NCAA Tournament games in Orlando with the Tar Heels win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Elite Eight being most watched game that week.
Overall March Madness was the most-watched sporting event in Orlando for the entire month of March. And while the title game viewers were down, it was still No. 1 overall TV program watched from people ages 18-49.
Next Year, Orlando will be one of eight cities to host First and Second Round games in the NCAA Tournament at the Amway Center.
[…] Those are better numbers then MLB, NHL, and even some of Orlando City and Orlando Magic games do. Only the Mens College Basketball Final Four had more viewers in sports on April 2 in Orlando. […]