Who Needs Cinderella? Florida Versus Houston Draws Massive Ratings For National Championship On CBS

Turns out, a lot of the people complaining that this Final Four was worse off without a Cinderella playing must've been tuning in Monday night as Florida battled Houston for a national championship. 

After we witnessed two incredible semifinal games that featured Duke, Auburn, Houston and Florida, there were questions about whether this year's title game could bring in a massive audience, even without the Blue Devils playing. 

Well, those thoughts were proven wrong Tuesday afternoon, as the television ratings for the national championship game were released by Sports Media Watch. 

According to the report, the Houston versus Florida matchup garnered an average 18.1 million viewers on CBS, which was the largest audience for the game since the 2019 showdown between Texas Tech and Virginia. 

Now, I imagine that number would hover around 20-21 million if Duke had been playing, but nonetheless, this was a massive win for CBS. Before the 2019 game, the previous high was the Final Four semifinal in 2022, which garnered an average 17.7 million viewers, according to the Neilsen ratings. 

Also, there was a 22% increase in viewership from the UConn vs. Texas Tech game from last year that aired on TNT's networks, with an average of 14.8 million. 

The game had a peak average of 21.1 million viewers, who probably pulled the same trick by turning it off thinking that Houston had this one in the bag. Unfortunately, if you fell asleep, again, you missed out on another crazy Final Four comeback, with Florida hoisting the trophy at the end. 

According to Sports Media Watch, viewership increased 23% this year, compared to the San Diego State versus UConn game, which was on CBS. 

I think it's fair to say that viewers were not turned-off by the lack of ‘underdog’ stories in this year's Final Four, and the ratings prove it. 

I'll be interested to hear what some of the pundits who said this year's Final Four lacked enough storylines to see a decrease in viewership.