In one of the more unpredictable March Madness brackets ever seen, the television ratings for the Sweet 16 mimicked the action on the court for TBS and CBS.
The news is mostly positive for TBS. Thursday’s broadcast of Kansas State/Michigan State average 5.92 million viewers, up 88% compared the Villanova/Michigan broadcast in the same window a year prior. That number also represents the largest Sweet 16 audience for the network since 2015, excluding the 2021 Tournament that saw standalone windows for each broadcast.
Florida Atlantic’s win over Tennessee drew 3.97 million, a 68% uptick compared to the same window for TBS.
Friday’s broadcast of San Diego State’s win over Alabama and Princeton’s loss to Creighton averaged 4.51 million and 4.37 million respectively, a 71% increase compared to 2022.
However, the picture wasn’t as rosy for CBS. 6.13 million tuned into Gonzaga’s win over UCLA Thursday, but that figure represented a 25% decrease compared to last year’s Texas Tech/Duke broadcast. Similarly, the network’s coverage of UConn/Arkansas saw 4.26 million viewers, a drop of 48% compared to Arkansas/Gonzaga in 2022.
Friday’s broadcasts didn’t fare much better for CBS, as the network’s coverage of Miami’s upset win over Houston drew 5.51 million viewers. 4.81 million watched Texas defeat Xavier. Both telecasts saw a drop of at least 40% compared to similar games during the 2022 tournament.
The news of the mixed bag television ratings comes on the heels of record high viewership for the round of 64. Those broadcasts averaged 9.2 million viewers across CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV, and the March Madness Live streaming platform.
