The NCAA basketball championship game, between the UW-Madison Badgers and the Duke University Blue Devils, UW’s first championship game since 1941, handily won the night’s TV ratings.
Milwaukee had the highest ratings for a game that had the highest ratings nationally in 18 years.
Locally, the game earned a 42.2 rating average and a 59 share, more than twice that of the competition combined. A ratings point represents one percent of the total number of TV households. The share is the percentage of television sets in use tuned to a program.
A local rating point is the equivalent of 8,932 TV homes. An average of approximately 376,930 TV homes tuned into the game.
Nationally the game earned a 17.1 rating and a 21 share, up 33% over last year. According to TVSpy, the station in Raleigh/Durham, home to Duke University had a 36.2 rating and 54 share.
The number three market, with a 33.5 rating, was in Louisville, Kentucky. The Badgers beat the University of Kentucky to reach the championship game.
The local ratings peaked, predictably, toward the climax, with a 46.5 rating and a 65 share. That final number approaches the sort of rarefied rating earned by a lesser Green Bay Packer game.
Not all eyes were on the game, which ran from 8 to about 10:15 p.m. About 162,562 TV homes were tuned into other programing. Non sports fans watched; “Dancing With the Stars” which earned a strong 10.7, “The Voice,” a 4.8 and “The Following” a 2.7.
The game delayed the local news on CBS affiliate WDJT-TV (Channel 58) until 10:30 p.m. It earned a 10.2.
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