An NCAA men’s basketball tournament light on all of the moments most associated with “March Madness” — upsets, buzzer beaters and general unpredictability — is nonetheless trending at a multi-year viewership high.
Coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is averaging a combined 9.4 million viewers per window across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, the highest two-round average since 1993 and up from 9.0 million at the same point last year. The previous high was 9.3 million in 2017.
(Keep in mind Nielsen did not track out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020 and did not do so in 100 percent of markets until earlier this year. All things being equal, not only is it is a virtual lock that the 2017 tournament would rank ahead of this one, it may even be the case that last year’s average would as well.)
The second round averaged a combined 10.2 million per window, the highest since 2017. Saturday’s slate averaged 10.3 million, down 5% from last year (10.9M) but the second-highest average since 1992 (10.4M). Sunday’s slate averaged a combined 10.1 million (+13%).
The top two windows thus far were the early primetime slots on Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday window, which was led by CBS coverage of Michigan-Texas A&M, averaged 15.0 million across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV — actually down 10% from last year (16.6M) but otherwise highest on record for the window. The Sunday window, which was led by CBS coverage of Kentucky-Illinois, averaged 15.3 million across CBS, TBS and TNT (+3%).
As for the CBS standalone windows, the network drew 9.6 million for Duke-Baylor and 7.8 million for Florida-UConn on Sunday afternoon — the highest in their respective windows since 2017 and 1998 respectively. On Saturday, it drew 9.2 million for Arkansas-St. John’s — up 11% from last year and the highest in the window since 2017 — and 5.2 million for Purdue-McNeese (-16%).
For all the concerns regarding the dominance of the power conference teams, the lack of upsets so far in this tournament has left CBS and TNT Sports with a field comprised largely of familiar programs.
Additional figures will be added as they are available. For more numbers, see the SMW sports ratings tracker.
