Final Four Blowouts Predictably Lead to Significant Ratings Drop
By Kyle Koster
Ratings for Saturday’s Final Four games were down significantly from last year’s. Villanova-Oklahoma averaged 10.5 million viewers, down 31.4 percent from 2015’s Duke-Michigan State game. Syracuse-North Carolina averaged 12.9 million viewers, down 42.9 percent from Wisconsin-Kentucky.
Turner/CBS were already fighting an uphill battle as the matchups weren’t as sexy. A pair of non-competitive games certainly didn’t help. Despite the drop, the games were the third- and fourth-most watched college basketball games in cable history.