After Duke-Butler, Big Event Television Is The New Black



The Duke-Butler game is, as they say, one for the ages.



From Medialifemagazine:

Monday night's national championship game between Butler and victorious Duke averaged a 14.2 household rating and 23 share from 9:15 p.m. to 11:41 p.m., according to Nielsen, up a robust 31 percent over last year's all-time low of 10.8/18 for a game between North Carolina and Michigan State.

That rating is the best since the 2005 game between Illinois and North Carolina, which averaged a 15.0.

Like the Oscars, which drew the most viewers in five years, and the Superbowl (top rated telecast), the Grammys (highest ratings since 2004), and the Winter Olympics (best since '94) that big event TV is king in Great Recession America. Some of this, no doubt, has to do with social web sites. There is also, I'd offer, the compelling narrative that live big-ticket events offer to the general public amidst the economic doldrums.


Tiger Woods' return to the Masters will, no doubt, also break records in golf viewership.