Underdog Butler and proven TV power Duke drove ratings for Monday night's championship game of the NCAA Tournament 34 percent higher than last year's championship game.Butler-Duke pulled a 16.0 household rating and a 25 share -- up from 11.9/19 for North Carolina-Michigan State in 2009.
According to CBS Sports, the Butler-Duke numbers tied 2005 (North Carolina-Illinois) as the highest-rated game in metered markets since 1999 (UConn-Duke).
Not surprisingly, Butler-Duke drew its highest ratings from 11:30 to 11:45 p.m., with 20.3/35.
With the championship game, the average overnight ratings for the tournament was 6.6/14, a 5 percent increase over last year. That makes the just-completed tournament the highest rated overall since 2005, which averaged 6.9/15.
In terms of the national championship telecast itself, CBS Sports provided accurate and enjoyable coverage. Analyst Clark Kellogg has seemingly developed more of a comfort level being critical on a big stage (although he rarely disagreed with any fouls called) and the production stayed away from any easy and lazy "Hoosiers" or Cinderella/underdog storylines.
Yes, there was one bit of "Hoosiers" music and collage of images late in the game, but it was not over the top.
While play-by-play man Jim Nantz and Kellogg talked about the atmosphere in Lucas Oil Stadium a couple of times -- with Nantz asking his partner "Have you ever seen as scene like this?" -- the atmosphere did not transfer well to viewers at home. It seemed no more loud or raucous than any other championship basketball game.
Later, Kellogg guessed wrong when he suggested that Duke would shoot early in a possession late in the game. At the time the Blue Devils were up, so it seemed to make sense that they'd hold the ball a bit before shooting. That was one of the few missteps during the telecast, though.
Technically, the only problem seemed to be an overuse of high overhead cameras that provided an unfamiliar angle on game action. While the typical sideline shot was slightly higher because of camera placement in the stadium, it was hard to tell any difference by what showed up on screen. Too often, though, the production team selected shots from even higher cameras that hung over the court.
They seemed like something that would be a fine selection for diagramming a play or providing a slow motion recap of action that had happened, but for live action the angle was just different enough that it seemed uncomfortable. It was not a bad view, just something not typical of a basketball game and trotting it out during the national championship game seemed that it was more a matter of utilizing bells and whistles as opposed to providing a comfortable or familier viewing experience for fans at home.