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Wisconsin-Kentucky most-watched Final Four game in 19 years

By Cameron La Fontaine

Mar 21, 2015; Louisville, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari reacts during the first half against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the third round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at KFC Yum! Center. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 21, 2015; Louisville, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari reacts during the first half against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the third round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at KFC Yum! Center. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports /
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A stellar Final Four game between Kentucky and Wisconsin on Saturday was the most watched semifinal game in 19 years.

Wisconsin and Kentucky set a record on Saturday, unfortunately for the Wildcats, it wasn’t the record of going 39-0. The game ended with generating the most television viewers ever before on a college basketball game according to the NCAA.

The average of 22.6 million total viewers per network created the largest audience ever for a college basketball game. And are you at all surprised?

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The Kentucky Wildcats, the college basketball dream team, filled with stars like Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Trey Lyles, Devin Booker and more were 38-0 going into the national semi-final in hopes of becoming the first college basketball team to ever go 40-0 and win the championship.

The Wildcats, led by head coach John Calipari, were crushed when they let a slim late-game slip away and Wisconsin led by senior Frank Kaminsky and junior Sam Dekker took home the 71-64 win spoiling Kentucky’s perfect season.

It was as if it was written in a book. Big bad Kentucky who everyone other than their obscenely large fan base wants to go down and a fan favorite Wisconsin, storming in and dismantling Kentucky late in the second half much in thanks to a Sam Dekker three pointer followed by a charge call drawn by Dekker on Trey Lyles.

According to the NCAA, the combined viewership of the two national semi-final games was up 35 percent over last year and the NCAA Tournament as a whole has had a six percent increase over 2014’s NCAA Tournament. 

Without Kentucky in the national championship, one has to wonder if the game will get less views than it would have if the Wildcats were in. Granted Duke and Wisconsin have huge fan bases and anyone who loves sports should and will be watching the game, but maybe Wildcats fans nationwide take the trend to not watch the game. We’ll see if ratings are effected negatively, or if the national championship proceeds to bring in the most viewers the Final Four has seen in 19 years.

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