The National Championship Game between the Florida Gators and Houston Cougars within the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament averaged 18.1 million viewers on CBS, it was revealed on Tuesday afternoon. The Monday night contest peaked with 21.1 million viewers as Florida completed a comeback in the final minute of the game, securing the victory in thrilling fashion by a final score of 65-63.
As a whole, the National Championship Game was up 22% year-over-year and represents the most-watched iteration of the event since 2019. Last year’s game between the UConn Huskies and Purdue Boilermakers averaged 14.8 million viewers, which was a slight improvement over the record-low viewership from the year before. Ian Eagle completed his second year as the play-by-play announcer on the game broadcasts for the Final Four and National Championship Game, and he was joined by analysts Bill Raftery and Grant Hill, and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson.
Tournament broadcasts across Final Four weekend averaged 16.4 million viewers for the three games, indicative of a 21% year-over-year rise and the best finish in eight years. Games within the Final Four round on CBS averaged 15.3 million viewers, which was up 19% from the previous year on TBS. The game between Houston and Duke averaged 16 million viewers, representative of a 13% year-over-year proliferation. Furthermore, the lead-in game featuring Florida and Auburn garnered a 27% increase with an average of 14.6 million viewers.
Tournament viewership as a whole across CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV averaged 10.2 million viewers, an increase of 3% from the previous year. Both companies are currently operating under an eight-year media rights extension that grants them rights to broadcast the tournament through 2032, reportedly worth a total of $8 billion.
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