As has usually been the case in the CBS/Turner Sports era, NCAA Tournament viewership is among the highest in decades.
Coverage of the NCAA Tournament has averaged a combined 8.6 million viewers across CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV through Saturday, according to Nielsen fast-nationals — up 2% from last year (8.4M) but down 2% from 2015 (8.8M).
This year’s tournament trails only 2015 and 2014 (also 8.8M) as the most-watched through the first Saturday since the current scheduling format began in 1991. Of course, last year’s tournament was also the third-most watched through the first Saturday, and the numbers ended up unusually low — so there are no guarantees that the good times will continue.
Individual figures for Friday and Saturday telecasts were not available.
(Avg. from Turner Sports PR/Twitter 3.19)
