The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament showcased two Final Four games on Saturday night and featured Ian Eagle, the new lead play-by-play announcer for the coverage. Eagle was joined by analysts Bill Raftery and Grant Hill, reporter Tracy Wolfson and rules analyst Gene Steratore for the two-game slate from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. The studio team was live on-site to lead in to the coverage, which featured host Ernie Johnson and analysts Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Jay Wright.
The game between the Purdue Boilermakers and NC State Wolfpack averaged 11.45 million viewers and a 5.3 share, which was down 10% in viewership year-over-year. Last year’s comparable matchup between San Diego State and Florida Atlantic University averaged 11.90 million viewers and attained a 6.0 share.
The final game of the night between the defending champion UConn Huskies and Alabama Crimson Tide averaged 14.18 million and a 6.7 share. Year-over-year, the game is up 10% in viewership from last year’s comparable matchup between UConn and Miami, along with a 5% boost in ratings. Both contests were televised on TBS, TNT and truTV and were also available to stream live utilizing NCAA March Madness Live and the Max B/R Sports Add-On.
TBS was measured to have attained the largest portion of overall viewership for the games, drawing approximately 50% of average viewership for Purdue-NC State and just over 46% of viewership for UConn-Alabama. Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch shared that the gap between TBS and TNT was the smallest this year since Warner Bros. Discovery-owned networks commenced airing Final Four games in 2014. Additionally, truTV added over 1 million viewers for each of the contests.
As a whole, Final Four viewership averaged 12.84 million viewers across the three networks, up 4% year-over-year, but it experienced a 2% decline in ratings to a 6.0 share. Viewership figures for Monday night’s National Championship Game between UConn and Purdue have yet to be released.
