NCAA Tournament’s Sunday Elite Eight flops with TV viewers

The Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament was not a big hit with March Madness viewers.The regional finals on Saturday and Sunday saw all four No. 1 seeds advance to the Final Four and they averaged just 9 million viewers on CBS, TBS and truTV, a 10 percent drop from last year’s tournament.According to Neilsen, the two Sunday games were down 26 percent from a year ago.Houston’s 69-50 victory over Tennessee averaged 7.1 million viewers, down 32 percent from last year’s Purdue over Tennessee matchup in the same window. Auburn’s 70-64 win over Michigan State averaged 11.7 million viewers, a drop of 23 percent from last year’s North Carolina State upset of Duke.The results were better for the Saturday games. Duke’s 85-65 rout of Alabama drew 9.8 million viewers, up 26 percent from last year’s telecast of Alabama beating Clemson. Florida’s rally for an 84-79 win over Texas Tech drew 7.5 million, 16 percent over last season when UConn beat Illinois.

Blogs