North Carolina’s 89-72 pasting of Michigan State drew an 11.9/19 overnight rating on CBS from Nielsen Media Research, a 7 percent decline from last year’s overtime game between Kansas and Memphis. That game drew a 12.8/20 overnight rating.

According to the SportsBusiness Daily, Monday’s “game peaked at a 12.8/19 in the 9:30-10:00pm ET window, and also gave CBS the win in primetime among all nets. For the entire tournament, CBS averaged a 6.3/13 overnight, up 5% from a 6.0/12 last year.”

With the game being played at Ford Field in Detroit, and Michigan State in the Final, the game drew a record attendance of 72,922.

CBS Sports' coverage of the Final Four on Saturday, April 4 earned an average overnight household rating/share of 9.0/18, up +7% from an 8.4/16 last year.

The first game window (6:00-8:45 PM, ET), featuring Michigan State's victory over Connecticut delivered an 8.7/18, up +12% from a 7.8/16 last year (Memphis-UCLA). The second national semi-final game (9:00-11:30 PM, ET), with North Carolina beating Villanova, earned an average overnight household rating/share of 9.3/17, up +2% from last year's 9.1/16 (Kansas-North Carolina).

Source: SportsBusiness Daily, CBS Sports

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