Men’s, Women’s NCAA Basketball Neck and Neck For Watch-Time
Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for Mar. 27 through Apr. 2, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).
The final week of March Madness led for program watch-time, with the men’s tournament capturing 1.45% of all live, linear minutes watched, while the women’s tournament was close behind at 1.41%. It’s worth noting that there were more women’s games than men’s during the period measured (five vs. two), including the women’s national championship on Sunday, Apr. 2 — so more opportunities for people to tune-in, bolstering women’s watch-time in general.
Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:
The women’s Final Four and championshipship game saw minutes watched more than double year-over-year, an encouraging sign that people are starting to pay more attention to the women’s tournament.
With 0.95% of watch-time, NBA jumps into the top five, up from No. 10 the previous week.
The new MLB season kicked off on Mar. 30, with all 30 teams playing on Opening Day, reportedly the first time that’s happened since 1968. The MLB games captured 0.85% of minutes watched during the week, putting it solidly in sixth place.
Aside from MLB, Tucker Carlson Tonight was the sole week-over-week newcomer to the program ranking, securing No. 25 with 0.43% of watch-time.
On the network side of things, CBS once again leads the ranking, although it saw a slight decrease in watch-time week-over-week, down to 8.05% from 8.17% previously. The men’s Final Four, The Price Is Right, CBS Mornings and the 2023 CMT Music Awards were some of the top programs contributing to CBS’s share of minutes watched.
Additional insights around the most-watched networks from Mar. 27-Apr. 2:
With an assist from women’s basketball, ABC marches into second place with 7.07% of minutes watched.
Cable news networks MSNBC and CNN both increase their ranking positions and share of minutes watched compared to the previous week: MSNBC moves into eighth place with 2.11% of watch-time, while CNN takes eleventh with 1.69%.
Thanks in part to NBA games, TNT lands at No. 18, up from No. 27 previously, with 1.14% of watch-time.
A second week-over-week newcomer, Game Show Network, rounds out the ranking at No. 25 (0.89% of minutes watched).
