Interest is up in the NCAA tournament.
Per the networks covering the games, Thursday’s opening-round coverage of the men’s NCAA tournament was the most watched ever. CBS and TNT released a joint statement Monday that that games set viewership records by multiple metrics.
Thursday’s 16 games, which were broadcast across CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV drew an average of 9.8 million viewers, which represents a 6% increase form 2025. The prime-time slate thattipped off with 1 seed Michigan beating 16 Howard and featured 11 seed VCU’s comeback upset of 6 North Carolina drew and average of 12.5 million viewers, the most for any first-round viewing window in NCAA tournament history.
Per the networks, tournament viewership as a whole is off to its best-ever start with and average of 9.3 million viewers, a 5% increase from last year. First-and second-round games were played Thursday through Sunday. The statement did not clarify if that number included all of the games played through Sunday.
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While no true Cinderella survived to the second weekend of the tournament, the opening two rounds featured plenty of compelling action, including St. John’s beating Kansas on a buzzer beater, 9 seed Iowas beating 1 seed and reigning champion Florida with a 3-pointer in the final seconds and a thriller between Nebraska and Vanderbilt that featured a late game-winner by Nebraska followed by a 3/4-court Vanderbilt would-be-game winner by Vanderbilt that rattled in and out as the game clock expired.
The Associated Press reports that Nielsen confirmed the numbers shared by the networks and that Miami (Ohio)’s First Four win over SMU Wednesday night also set a record. That game averaged 2.8 million viewers, the most-ever for a First Four game played in its traditional time slot. First Four games were all pushed to a Thursday in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CBS partnered with Turner Sports to start showing all of the NCAA tournament games across the four netowrks in 2011. Prior to that, CBS held exclusive coverage of NCAA tournament games, and viewers were left to watch whichever game was aired in the region they lived in.
With as many as four games played at one time, viewers before 2011 didn’t have the option of watching a different game than what was airing on CBS in their local market.