The NCAA men’s basketball Sweet Sixteen of course topped the sports viewership charts for Thursday, March 28.
Thursday’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament regional semifinals averaged a combined 10.24 million viewers per window across CBS, TBS and truTV, up 1% from last year (10.15M). Alabama-North Carolina led the way with a 4.2 rating and 7.80 million viewers on CBS, up 20% in ratings and 27% in viewership from last year (Gonzaga-UCLA: 3.5, 6.13M). For more information on the Sweet Sixteen ratings, see the preceding link.
Beyond the hardwood, the Cubs-Rangers MLB Opening Night game averaged 1.58 million viewers on ESPN — down 4% from White Sox-Astros last year (1.64M), but up from Reds-Braves on ESPN2 two years ago (1.37M). This year marked the first time since 2019 that Opening Night coincided with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
In other Opening Day action, MLB Network averaged 252,000 for regional coverage featuring Dodgers-Cardinals — up 6% from the same window last year (237K) — and 142,000 for a late night window featuring Red Sox-Mariners (-24%). Shifting to college baseball, ESPN2 averaged 164,000 for LSU-Arkansas.
Further down the dial, a Bucks-Pelicans NBA regular season game averaged 285,000 on NBA TV. (TNT aired games on the same night last year.) ESPN2 averaged 116,000 for a UMass-Denver NCAA men’s hockey regional semifinal, while ESPNU drew 87,000 for Omaha-Minnesota and 23,000 for RIT-Boston University. (A fourth game aired on ESPNews, which is not Nielsen-rated.)
The FS1 talk show “Undisputed” averaged just 48,000 viewers, the show’s smallest audience since returning from hiatus last year.
Thursday, March 28 sports ratings
Updated chart:
Original chart below:
