Monday’s NCAA Tournament Championship Game earned a 12.4 overnight rating on free-to-air CBS, up about 20 per cent on last year’s final, broadcast on cable channels TBS, TNT and truTV.
But the rating was down on the last time the March Madness final was shown on CBS: it earned a 14.5 overnight in 2017.
Overall, March Madness reported an all-time record for live streams and live hours consumed – those figures were up 31 per cent and 29 per cent respectively. Linear coverage on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV delivered an average rating of 7.1, up 11 per cent from last year’s 6.4.