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Rick Pitino congratulates Mike Bibby after Arizona beat his Kentucky team in the 1997 championship ( YouTube video screen shot)
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A CBS press release this morning states that its network and the coverage of Turner Sports for last night’s NCAA tournament national championship between Duke and Wisconsin on CBS scored a 17.1 rating, which is the highest overnight rating for the title game in metered markets in 18 years.
The overnight rating of 18.0 when Arizona beat defending national champion Kentucky in 1997 remains the highest in the last 18 years, based on Nielsen metered market ratings, according to the CBS press release.
The 17.1 rating for last night’s game is up 33 percent over last year (12.9, between Connecticut-Kentucky). It peaked with a 20.1 from 11-11:30 p.m. ET.
Overall, 2015 NCAA Tournament coverage across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averaged a 7.8 overnight rating, up 13 percent and is the best overnight rating in 22 years (7.9 in 1993).
According to CBS, the NCAA Tournament grossed a record 350 million total social impressions across Facebook and Twitter for a 45% increase over 2014.
Turner Sports and CBS Sports’ coverage of last week’s NCAA tournament regional final doubleheader – Wisconsin vs. Arizona and Kentucky vs. Notre Dame – averaged a 7.3 overnight rating to deliver the highest average rating for the Saturday Elite Eight games in 10 years (8.1 in 2005).
The Arizona vs. Wisconsin game averaged a 5.7 overnight rating for a 24 percent increase over last year’s Elite Eight game between the schools.
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Site founder and award-winning sports journalist Javier Morales has published his first e-book, “The Highest Form of Living”, a fiction piece about a young man who overcomes a troubled upbringing without his lost father and wayward mother through basketball and hope. His hope is realized through the sport he loves. Basketball enables him to get past his fears. His experience on the court indirectly brings him closer to his parents in a unique, heartfelt way. Please order it at Amazon (for only $4.99) by clicking on the photo:
Duke-Wisconsin gets highest overnight TV rating for the final in 18 years (Arizona-Kentucky in 1997)
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 7, 2015
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The highest overnight rated NCAA title game in the last 18 years:
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He has also written articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
