Record Set By Game Between Notre Dame And Kentucky Basketball Teams

The Kentucky basketball team has another feather on its cap as it drew the biggest number of viewers in the history of TBS in its game against Notre Dame last Saturday.

The number-one seed was undefeated when it entered the Elite 8 of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The game was decided by the two free throws of Andrew Harrison with six seconds left on the clock. After sinking both free throws Notre Dame failed to score again as the Wildcats won the game, 68-66.

In addition to the cable television record, the Kentucky basketball team will attempt to become the first team in nearly four decades to end the season without a single defeat. The last team that went undefeated throughout the entire tournament was the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers. The team will try to keep its record of 38-0 immaculate as it goes up against Wisconsin. The two teams faced off in the semifinals last year.

Game Between Notre Dame And Kentucky basketball Teams - image credit: cbssports.com

The game between Kentucky and Notre Dame had an average US household rating of 8.4/16 along with 14.7 million viewers as it delivered the highest-rated and most-viewed television program in the history of TBS. The US household rating peaked at 11.1/20 along with 19.7 million viewers. The game was also the most-viewed and highest-rated college basketball game in the history of cable television.

The networks airing the games have reaped the success brought about by March Madness 2015. CBS, TNT, truTV and TBS have noted the highest average viewership in the last 22 years. The tournament has averaged around 9.9 million viewers, which is 2 percent higher compared to last year.

A good number of the audience has come from people viewing from a computer or a mobile device. Around 67 million live video streams were also recorded by NCAA March Madness LIVE along with 14 million live video feeds, which is 12 and 13 percent higher than last year, respectively .

March Madness is also creating a buzz on social media as around 166 million social impressions were recorded through Twitter and Facebook. The games last Saturday, which included the game between the Notre Dame and Kentucky basketball teams, delivered 1.2 million live hours and 5.2 million live video streams.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Monday March 30 2015, 10:15 AM EDT. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0