Saturday Final Nationals: CBS Delivers Second-Best NCAA Final Four Doubleheader in 19 Years

The Final Four of the “NCAA Div. I Men’s Basketball Tournament” on CBS dominated the Saturday television landscape.

Saturday night’s NCAA Final Four National Semifinal games averaged 16.8 million viewers, making it the second most-watched Final Four in 19 years (since 1998, trailing only 2015). Viewership of the doubleheader — Gonzaga vs. South Carolina and North Carolina vs. Oregon — on CBS increased 44 percent from 2016 (which had aired on TBS, TNT and truTV).  The 2016 games were decided by a combined 61 points; the 2017 games, by a combined mere 5 points.

North Carolina-Oregon was watched by an average of 18.8 million viewers, up 46 percent from 2016, and the second-highest average viewership for the late Final Four game in 19 years. The game peaked with 20.5 million viewers from 11-11:15 p.m. ET.

In the early game, Gonzaga-South Carolina delivered an average of 14.7 million viewers, up 40 percent, making it the second most-watched Final Four game in that window since 2005. The game peaked with 20.6 million viewers from 8:15-8:27 p.m. 

(Source: NCAA)

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* AFF = Number of affiliates (stations) airing the program
* CVG = percent of coverage in U.S.
	Saturday, April 1, 2017
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.4/3	2056	0.2/1	0.4/2	0.5/2
8:00	The Goldbergs (rs)	254	93	1.1/2	1664	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.5/2
8:30	Imaginary Mary (rs)	254	93	1.2/2	1799	0.2/1	0.4/2	0.5/2
9:00	The Catch (rs)	254	93	0.9/2	1332	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.4/1
10:00	20/20 Saturday (r)	254	93	2.1/4	3104	0.3/2	0.5/2	0.7/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			10.2/20	18420	4.3	5.3/23	6.2/22
5:57	NCAA Div. I Men’s Basketball: Final Four South Carolina vs. Gonzaga (s)			8.5/19	14680	3.1/21	3.9/20	4.7/20
8:27	NCAA Final Four Bridge (s)	251	93	8.9/18	16028	3.7/12	4.6/21	5.4/20
8:55	NCAA Div. I Men’s Basketball: Final Four Oregon vs. North Carolina (s) (thru 11:29)	251	93	10.4/20	18825	4.5/24	5.5/23	6.4/22
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.2/2	1800	0.1/1	0.3/1	0.4/1
8:00	World Figure Skating Championships (s)	244	93	1.2/2	1819	0.1/1	0.2/1	0.3/1
10:00	Saturday Night Live (r)	244	93	1.2/2	1762	0.3/1	0.5/2	0.6/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-10	Network Average			0.7/1	1093	0.2/1	0.2/1	0.3/1
8:00	Bones (r)	255	93	0.8/2	1154	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.3/1
9:00	APB (r)	255	93	0.7/1	1032	0.1/1	0.2/1	0.3/1
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			0.4/1	684	0.2/1	0.3/1
6:55	Crónicas de Sábado			0.6/1	967	0.2/1	0.3/2
7:55	La Piloto (s)			0.3/1	562	0.1/1	0.2/1
8:55	Liga MX Tigres UANL vs. Leon			0.4/1	739	0.2/1	0.3/1
10:57	Liga MX America vs. Monterrey (thru 1:01 a.m.)			0.6/1	1275		0.6/3
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			0.4/1	784		0.3/1
7:03	Cine Caballero a la Medida (1953)			0.4/1	643	0.1/1	0.2/1
9:03	Cine Ip Man 2 (2010) (thru 11:03)			0.4/1	800	0.2/1	0.3/1
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average (preliminary)			0.3/1	652	0.2/1	0.2/1
8:00	Cine Piranha 3DD (2012) (preliminary)			0.3/1	579	0.1/1	0.2/1
8:30	Cine RoboCop (2014) (preliminary)			0.3/1	498	0.1/1	0.2/1
9:00	Cine RoboCop (2014) (preliminary)			0.3/1	647	0.2/1	0.2/1
10:00	Cine RoboCop (2014) (preliminary)			0.4/1	770	0.2/1	0.3/1

Note: All of this date’s Telemundo data are based on preliminary figures.

Sub-Demo Breakdowns – Saturday 4/01/17

For the entire week of March 27-April 2, 2017 in Total Day (8 p.m. to 5:59 a.m.), Adult Swim is down -12 percent in viewership (0.772 million vs. 0.879 million) and down -12 percent among Adults 18-49 (476,000 vs. 541,000) from one week earlier; the network is also down -28 percent in total viewership (0.772 million vs. 1.077 million) and down -26 percent among Adults 18-49 (476,000 vs. 639,000) from the same week one year ago (March 28-April 3, 2016). (https://programmingins.wpengine.com/?p=16081)

	PROGRAM	HH	Viewers (000)	A1849 rating	A1849 (000)
8:00	Rick & Morty	0.39	676	0.24	309
8:30	Rick & Morty (r)	0.40	654	0.26	331
9:00	Rick & Morty (r)	0.43	693	0.30	386
9:30	Rick & Morty (r)	0.41	677	0.26	338
10:00	Rick & Morty (r)	0.49	809	0.35	448
10:30	Rick & Morty (r)	0.55	865	0.40	509
11:00	Rick & Morty (r)		949	0.44	564
11:30	Rick & Morty (r)		818	0.39	505

TOONAMI – SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 2017

	PROGRAM	Viewers (000)	A1849 rating	A1849 (000)
12:00a	Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters	864	0.40	511
12:25a	Sand Whale and Me	826	0.41	520
12:30a	JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure	679	0.32	416
1:00a	Tokyo Ghoul	601	0.29	368
1:30a	Hunter X Hunter	593	0.29	372
2:00a	Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn	548	0.27	352
2:30a	Naruto: Shippuden	583	0.28	359
3:00a	Ghost in the Shell (r)	492	0.25	326

	PROGRAM	Viewers (000)	A1849 rating	A1849 (000)
3:30a	Bob’s Burgers (r)	490	0.25	320
4:00a	Rick & Morty (r)	503	0.25	317
4:30a	Rick & Morty (r)	497	0.25	318
5:00a	King of the Hill (r)	524	0.27	343
5:30a	King of the Hill (r)	528	0.27	344

Cable Rankings – Saturday 4/01/17

What follows are the top 200 most-watched shows in prime time on cable (by order of network) for Saturday, April 1:

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research