Final Four featuring all No. 1 seeds produced big ratings, despite complaints about lack of Cinderellas
Final Four featuring all No. 1 seeds produced big ratings, despite complaints about lack of Cinderellas
An NCAA tournament absent Cinderellas produces a lot of bellyaching from the viewing public.
But when it delivers a Final Four with No. 1 seeds playing competitive, compelling basketball, those viewers tune right back in. Don't listen if they tell you otherwise. The numbers don't lie.
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The ratings have dropped from the weekend's Final Four that consisted solely of No. 1 seeds Duke, Auburn, Houston and eventual champion Florida. It was the most-watched Final Four since 2017.
The numbers
That's according to March Madness Men's Basketball TV, which shared the numbers on Tuesday. Per the account, Monday's championship game between Houston and Florida delivered an average of 18.1 million viewers. That's a 22% bump from last season's title game between Purdue and UConn, which was playing for a second-straight championship and may have been responsible for some viewer fatigue.
The Final Four as a whole produced and average of 16.4 million viewers across its three games, representing a 21% increase from 2024 and the most since 2017's Final Four that featured South Carolina, Oregon and name brands Gonzaga and eventual champion North Carolina playing for the national title.
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Viewership across the entire NCAA tournament was up a modest 3% from last season.
In the end, this year's tournament produced a semifinal quartet of the nation's best teams. When they got to San Antonio they delivered. Florida's win over Auburn in one semifinal featured a standout performance from the tournament's best player, Walter Clayton Jr. and a thrilling second-half comeback from Florida to defeat its SEC rival.
A lot of people tuned in to watch Walter Clayton Jr. and the Gators win a national championship. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The other semifinal featured a monumental collapse by an always-divisive Duke team that was favored to win it all only to see it's championship dreams fall to Houston in the game's final seconds.
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Then Monday's championship game feature yet another stunning second-half rally, this time by Florida to overcome a 12-point second-half deficit to secure the title. It added up to dramatic, high-stakes basketball played by the nation's best teams. And people tuned in.
Women's championship draws big numbers too
The women's tournament also produced an optimal championship matchup of a dynastic UConn program seeking to rekindle its supremacy over the sport against the budding dynasty of South Carolina. It was a matchup of the game's two best teams and its two biggest coaches in Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma.
It also featured a UConn icon in Paige Bueckers seeking her first national championship in her final chance. And while the game action didn't deliver — UConn won in a blowout — it still drew in the eyeballs.
Sunday's championship game drew an average of 8.5 million viewers, the third-most for a women's title game since ESPN began broadcasting on its networks in 1996.
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