Women's national championship game ratings surpass men's title game for first time ever
Women’s college basketball continues to be a sport on the rise, and the women’s national title game surpassed the men’s final for the first time ever this year.
On Monday, UConn cemented its second straight run of dominance through the NCAA Tournament with a 75-60 win over Purdue. The Huskies’ chase of history averaged 14.82 million viewers across TBS and TNT according to Nielsen, representing a 4% increase over last year’s national championship game between UConn and San Diego State on CBS.
However, those numbers from Monday night were not enough to surpass Sunday’s championship game on the women’s side between South Carolina and Iowa. That matchup averaged 18.87 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, a record-setting broadcast as the most-watched basketball game at any level for ESPN since 2019.
Last season, the men’s final drew 14.7 million viewers while the women’s side drew 9.9 million. The women’s national championship game has exploded in the past few seasons, rising from 4.1 million viewers in 2021 all the way to 18.9 million this season.
Viewership trend for NCAA men’s and women’s basketball national title games: pic.twitter.com/RXBiKIyqAp
— Sports Media Watch (@paulsen_smw) April 9, 2024
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Storylines matter
At the end of the day, the intrigue involved in the championship matchups matter. The men’s side had its fair share of intrigue with UConn chasing back-to-back titles and 2-time Player of the Year Zach Edey looking to topple Dan Hurley’s juggernaut, but that still paled in comparison to the women’s matchup.
Iowa, led by the generational talent Caitlin Clark, entered a second straight national championship game and a rematch against South Carolina. Clark’s Hawkeyes spoiled South Carolina’s perfect season in the Final Four a season ago, and the Gamecocks were once again chasing perfection against Iowa.
With the win, Dawn Staley punched her ticket as one of the all-time great coaches with her 3rd national title and a 2nd in the last 3 seasons for South Carolina. Meanwhile, Clark played the final game of her illustrious Iowa career and opened the contest with an electric 1st-quarter performance.
The growth of women’s basketball has been a sight to behold in this era, but it will be an interesting number to track heading into next season at the collegiate level. Clark was not alone in elevating the sport, but she is the once-in-a-lifetime talent that played a massive role in taking things to new heights, particularly at a program like Iowa.
“At the end of the day, the intrigue involved in the championship matchups matter. The men’s side had its fair share of intrigue with UConn chasing back-to-back titles and 2-time Player of the Year Zach Edey looking to topple Dan Hurley’s juggernaut, but that still paled in comparison to the women’s matchup.”
There was never any “intrigue” with the men’s FF; UConn was not portrayed as chasing back-to-back titles but rather the story line was that UConn’s victory was inevitable. That’s going to lower interest in people watching when they think there’s really no point since the outcome is in little doubt. But that’s the power of ESPN for you; it had the women’s FF and properly promoted it, but with the Turner networks and CBS having the men’s, there was much less incentive to promote it and indeed every reason by the Mouse not to. Lower ratings will make that March Madness contract a little less expensive when it comes up for renewal and ESPN seeks to grab it.
Purdue was not a very good team. They were lucky to beat Tennessee.
Outside of Edey, they sucked.
Valid statement. Without “The Foul Merchant” Purdue wouldn’t have made it into the round of 16.
TN definitely could have done more to win that game but their hands were tied. When you lose by 5 points when Purdue shot 3x as many free throws, it just feels like the game was handed away. Purdue outrebounding TN by 21 didn’t help. But, TN was afraid to crowd Edey on rebounds due to the amount of fouls being called.
I’m fine with people watching women’s hoops if that’s what they like, but this whole thing was set up for propaganda purposes by the cheerleader media. The men’s game was shown very late on Monday night on TBS. The women’s game was on Sunday evening and simulcast on network television and ESPN. These two things are not the same. Next year without Caitlin Clark, things will revert to the mean.
Agree that the numbers will come down, but the men’s ratings didn’t do any better last year when they aired on CBS. The so-called cheerleader media has been promoting the men’s game for years. They are just starting to realize that half of the population are women.
“They are just starting to realize that half of the population are women.” B.S.
They’ve been madly pumping women’s basketball for years and years (e.g., CBS is contractually obligated to promote the women’s tournament on a rival network during the men’s tournament), but the public only became interested when Caitlin Clark came along. Yes, half the population is women, but they’re the half of the population that is largely uninterested in sports; otherwise, the WNBA would make money instead of barely surviving on their large NBA subsidy. To the extent that the women’s game has gained viewers, it has primarily been male viewers.
Congrats to SCar on their women’s team’s success, but loyalty to your school shouldn’t be an excuse to divorce your mind from reality.
The Caitlin Clark factor was huge.
The Men’s games has been dwindling for years. The fact that ABC, NBC, CBS, or ESPN are not interested in televising it is telling.
That’s simply not true.
“Starting in 2016, the Final Four and national championship game began to alternate between CBS and TBS. TBS holds the rights to the final two rounds in even-numbered years, with CBS getting the games in odd-numbered years.”
“If Turner had not joined CBS in a joint bid for NCAA rights, CBS would have been unable to afford to carry the tournament, and ESPN almost certainly would be airing the Final Four next weekend (and every year until 2024)”
I am not sure what is untrue. In 1982 the game drew over 30M viewers. It has dwindled down to 14M in 2024.
CBS was losing $50M a year and had to get a partner to help finance the telecast going forward. ESPN did bid on the new contract, but was outbid. You and I both know that if ESPN wanted it badly enough they would have gotten it. They are, after all, paying well over a billion dollars for the CFB playoffs. And that’s only 14 games vs 32.
Well the 1982 champ game averaged 17 mil viewers, so maybe you’re thinking of the Magic vs Bird game. That game was a pretty big deal at the time. Anyway the 2015 game averaged 28 mil viewers. Lot of factors go into viewership numbers.
You said those networks have “no interest” in televising the games. It has nothing to do with interest but rather money. It’s very expensive to air such a large event like the NCAAT and an over-the-air network can’t afford this event by itself. CBS was actually so interested in keeping games on CBS that they split the bill with Turner and creating one of the longest standing TV rights deal for a sporting event outside of the Olympics.
1982
Window Game Rtg. Vwrs Net(s)
Champ. UNC – Georgetown 21.6 30.589M CBS
From Sportsmedia Watch.
Interest means money is the Business world.