March Insanity: TV rankings barely up over final yr regardless of Sunday’s blowouts

The primary three days of the NCAA Match attracted document rankings, solely to see the momentum stifled as a result of Sunday’s video games being blowouts.

Total, the match is averaging 9.07 million viewers on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. That could be a slight enhance over the 9.05 million common at this level final yr.

By way of Saturday, the match averaged 9.0 million, making it the most-watched by that stage.

Sunday’s video games averaged 8.91 million, an 8% lower over final yr. The common profitable margin of the eight video games was 18.9 factors, together with Duke’s 93-55 blowout of James Madison and Purdue’s 106-67 rout of Utah State, each on CBS.

Saturday’s eight second-round video games averaged 10.8 million, making it the most-watched second spherical Saturday in match historical past. The Michigan State-North Carolina sport — an 85-59 victory by the Tar Heels — drew 10.02 million, the most-watched, second-round Saturday sport since Kentucky-Indiana in 2016.

Thursday’s first spherical averaged 8.5 million, the most-watched since 2015. Friday’s averaged 8.6 million, the second-most simply behind final yr’s 8.8 million.

CBS and TNT Sports activities ought to have the ability to regain some momentum throughout the Candy 16 and Elite Eight with all 4 high seeds nonetheless alive and lots of conventional, blueblood applications nonetheless within the area.

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AP March Insanity bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and protection: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness