NCCA Basketball Ratings

I'm still not quite sure where "Madness" fits into the title of the NCAA championships. Now that CBS has all the games to themselves, you would think that if madness were truly afoot that tens of millions would be watching these games. I mean the Final Four was determined this weekend and CBS only managed an average of about 6 million viewers Friday night.

To put that in perspective, that's what an average new episode of Pawn Stars gets on the History Channel on cable on Monday Nights. Vince McMahan and his WWE RAW wrestling show on USA Network Monday nights gets an average of 5 million viewers for their three hours. No one calls those "Madness" ratings. If anything Vince is DOWN from his "heyday" years of a decade ago when he was averaging nine million viewers every Monday. The hottest regular show on cable this year? Duck Dynasty. They get a whopping 8 million viewers every week when new episodes are broadcast. People who make duck calls for a living get 33% more viewers than the NCAA's finest BB players?

Madness? I think the numbers speak for themselves.

Five million viewers is what CBS averaged on Thursday night. What's madness to me is that CBS would preempt their normal Thursday night lineup to make room for college basketball. Bing Bang Theory is the top comedy show on television. It averages OVER 15 million viewers every time they show a new episode. Person of Interest brings in 13 million. Elementary averages 11 million.

A regular season college football game on ABC Saturday night during the fall will average over 15 million viewers. Not the bowl games, mind you, just the normal top teams playing each other to determine the two teams who will play in the National Championship game MONTHS later.

THOSE are big television numbers in this era of TV viewing. The Madness games don't really do anything ratings-wise until NEXT weekend. The semi-finals and finals will do well, but they would even without all of the inflated hype of the previous couple weekends.

I don't begrudge those who watch the games and enjoy them, but the ratings show that there just aren't many people who actually DO watch and enjoy them.

At it's peak, American idol averaged over 30 million a viewers a week for several seasons. This week, on Thursday night, they had their lowest viewership since their first season. They are in their death spiral. Their viewers? 11 million. Or about what CBS got for BOTH Thursday AND Friday night combined for their basketball games.

What madness is this?