UConn-San Diego State a new low for men's championship audience

UConn’s 76-59 win over San Diego State on CBS on Monday night was the least-watched NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship on record, notes SBJ’s Austin Karp. The game drew just under 14.7 million viewers for the 9:20pm ET start. The previous low was Villanova-Michigan in 2018, which aired on TBS/TNT/truTV and drew just under 16 million. The prior low for a CBS finale was UConn-Georgia Tech in 2004 with 17.1 million.

Hartford-New Haven drew a 26.5 local rating for the game, up 229% from the market's rating for Kansas-UNC last year. San Diego drew a 19.6, up 133% from 2022. The local market rankings for the game will not be available until Wednesday.

Given that 2023 is a non-Olympic year, that audience size is likely to keep the NCAA title game within the top 100 most watched telecasts of the year (it would have been No. 100 in 2022). The 14.7 million viewers ranks No. 26 in terms of the most-watched telecasts on U.S. TV this year to date. UConn-SDSU is the most-watched basketball game of any kind since last year’s Kansas-North Carolina game (pro or college).

For the entire men’s tournament, March Madness was down 7% across CBS/TBS/TNT/truTV compared to 2022. Viewership was up 4% compared to 2021, when TV windows were impacted by COVID.

The March Madness Live streaming app saw average watch time set a record in 2023 (+20% over 2022). On social media, men’s March Madness channels set a record for engagements and a new record for the tourney (+16% in engagements from 2022 and +21% in video views).