The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament secured its most-watched Final Four games in eight years, averaging a collective 15.3 million viewers on CBS, according to data from Nielsen Fast National and Out of Home data. This average is expected to proliferate on Tuesday when the final numbers become available from Nielsen Media Research. As a whole, the round experienced an increase of 19% from the previous year on TBS, TNT and truTV, and the doubleheader peaked with 20.4 million viewers from the 8:30 to 8:45 p.m. EST quarter-hour, according to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal.
The opening game between Florida and Auburn averaged 14.6 million viewers on the broadcast network, marking the highest average total for the early game since Gonzaga and South Carolina played in 2017 and procured 14.7 million viewers. Aside from that game, the only other early national semifinal contest to accrue higher viewership in the last 20 years came in 2015 when Duke and Michigan State achieved an average 15.3 million viewers. Compared to the matchup featuring Purdue and NC State last year, the Florida-Auburn game was up 27%, and the showdown garnered a 23% rise from the San Diego State-Florida Atlantic tilt two years ago.
The 11-point comeback by Houston to eliminate Duke later in the day contributed to an average of 16 million viewers, indicative of the most-watched game of this year’s tournament thus far. Houston’s victory was up 13% from the UConn-Alabama matchup last year and the most-watched men’s college basketball game since the National Championship between Kansas and North Carolina in 2022. Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch reports that the Houston-Duke semifinal game surpassed viewership for the last two national championship games.
As Florida and Houston prepare to square off and win the National Championship on Monday night, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is averaging a combined 9.9 million viewers per window on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. Average viewership of the tournament is up by 2% year-over-year moving into the National Championship Game, which will air live on Monday night at 8:50 p.m. EST on CBS and streaming live on Paramount+.
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