2017 NCAA Tournament continues its strong numbers through Elite Eight

There’s one event that continues to buck the trend of lower ratings in 2017 and that is the NCAA Tournament. Thanks to thrilling games, CBS and Turner Sports are seeing higher numbers from 2016.

Through the regional finals, the NCAA Tournament is averaging a 6.6 overnight rating and that’s up eight percent from last year. And this year’s average is the fourth highest dating back to 1993.

Even more encouraging entering the Final Four, the regional finals on both TBS and CBS averaged a 6.5 rating once again up eight percent from 2016.

The Kentucky-North Carolina South Regional Final that aired Sunday from 5:05 p.m. and ended in primetime at 7:30 p.m. ET, the game had a spectacular 9.5 overnight rating. The game peaked with a 13.6 rating in the final quarter-hour.

Online, the March Madness Live saw a record 4.9 million live streams just for Sunday’s regional finals alone. CBS/Turner says that’s up an astonishing 76% from last year.

So the NCAA Tournament continues to perform well and going into the Final Four, ratings should also be up from last year as the games will be on CBS and will almost certainly improve from 2016’s ratings on TBS which were dramatically lower than the year before.

The NCAA Tournament certainly draws interest from all over the country, but also depends on bluebloods like Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina advancing deep and possibly to the Final Four. Even though Duke was eliminated early, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina went far and that has helped to keep interest in the tournament.

With two first-time entrants in Gonzaga and South Carolina plus Oregon which hasn’t been in the Final Four since the inaugural tournament, it will be interesting to see how high the ratings increase will be.

[March Madness TV Twitter]