Final Four TV Ratings

[TheBigA]

Imagine that you're CBS, and you're hoping for a big boost from the Final Four, especially given the possible matchups at the start of the tournament. Now, all but one of the #1 seeds are gone, and all the best-known names will be watching, not playing. No teams from big cities, no teams with large alumni bases, no teams with any of the story-lines that might drive the ratings. What can you hope for? A close game. That's about it:

https://awfulannouncing.com/ratings...m-tbs-numbers-in-2018-but-down-from-2017.html

This is coming at a time when sports overall is on a bit of a down cycle.

 

[CTListener]

Imagine that you're CBS, and you're hoping for a big boost from the Final Four, especially given the possible matchups at the start of the tournament. Now, all but one of the #1 seeds are gone, and all the best-known names will be watching, not playing. No teams from big cities, no teams with large alumni bases, no teams with any of the story-lines that might drive the ratings. What can you hope for? A close game. That's about it:

https://awfulannouncing.com/ratings...m-tbs-numbers-in-2018-but-down-from-2017.html

This is coming at a time when sports overall is on a bit of a down cycle.

We're not talking about Gonzaga or St. Joseph's or Wake Forest here. This year's Final Four schools were all big public universities. Auburn, Texas Tech and Michigan State have undergrad enrollments between 28,000 and 36,000. Virginia has 16,000. How do these schools not have large alumni bases? Or is it just that their alumni aren't numerous in Markets That Matter -- NY, LA, Chicago, etc.? I'd blame the ratings slide more on the relentless Zion Williamson hype that might have convinced the casual fan that God Himself was playing for Duke and none of the other teams were even worth watching.

As you say, though, these are challenging times for all traditional major team sports. They're losing longtime viewers to the Grim Reaper, and many of the millennials just don't watch entire games, even if they do follow sports. Lately, I've seen sports networks televising gaming competitions -- e-sports. Are these shows actually attracting eyeballs? If so, there's where some of the younger viewers who could be watching the NCAA tournament have wound up.

 

[Don CT]

The only people that wanted to see Duke are those from the school and the rest of the country wanting them to lose.

 

[TheBigA]

So here are the numbers for the Monday game. Not bad considering the teams and the state of sports ratings lately:

https://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/tv-ratings-monday-april-8-2019/

Were they helped by the fact that it was a close game that went to OT? Maybe?

 

[joebtsflk1]

Imagine that you're CBS, and you're hoping for a big boost from the Final Four, especially given the possible matchups at the start of the tournament. Now, all but one of the #1 seeds are gone, and all the best-known names will be watching, not playing. No teams from big cities, no teams with large alumni bases, no teams with any of the story-lines that might drive the ratings. What can you hope for? A close game. That's about it:

.

Even though I was pulling for Texas Tech, Virginia had a very compelling story line: Last year as a number one seed, Virginia lost in the first round to 16 seed Univ. of Maryland/Baltimore County. Virginia was down by double-digits at halftime against a number 16 seed in the first round again this year.

It had to be very hard to be a huge Virginia fan with heart conditions.

Ratings might have been better had there been a "heavy" like Duke who a lot of people would like to root against. But I found it refreshing to see two teams in the championship game who had never been there before.