CBS finished with 6.2 million viewers for the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday, marking the program’s best audience since 6.8 million viewers in ’14. The program switched back to a 60-minute format this season. Last year, TBS aired the program and drew a record-low 2.5 million viewers for a two-hour format. When CBS last had the show in ’17, it drew 4.9 million viewers for the 90-minute format (which at the time was a record low audience).
ATLANTIC WALL: The ACC last week helped deliver ESPN its two most-watched championship week hoops games on record. Leading the way was Part 3 of this season's Duke-North Carolina rivalry. Even with a 9:30pm ET start on a Friday night, the ACC Tourney semifinal led all games last week with 4.2 million viewers. That is now ESPN’s most-viewed championship week game on record. Ranking second now is Sunday’s ACC Championship, as Duke-Florida State drew 4.1 million viewers. The record coming into this season was the UNC-Duke ACC title game from ’98 (4.0 million viewers). Two years ago, the same Duke-UNC semifinal matchup in the ACC Tourney in the 7:00pm window drew just 2.97 million viewers on ESPN. Meanwhile, Tennessee-Kentucky on Saturday afternoon drew 3.3 million viewers, marking ESPN’s most-watched SEC semifinal on record. For all of championship week telecasts, ESPN and ESPN2 were up 10% from ’18.
NOTES: Fox and FS1 averaged 283,000 viewers for the Big East Tournament this year, down 26% from ’18. The Villanova-Seton Hall title game on Fox on Saturday night drew 1.1 million viewers, down 24% from Villanova-Providence last year, which was an all-time high for Fox....UniMas last Wednesday (with a simulcast on Univision Deportes) drew 562,000 viewers for FC Barcelona-Lyon, marking the most-watched UEFA Champions League Round of 16 match since ’15, regardless of language. It also was the fifth-best UCL Round of 16 match on record.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
