Oakland’s upset of Kentucky on Thursday night led opening day games with 6.21 million viewers on CBSGetty Images
Early TV viewership numbers (sans streaming) are up for the NCAA Men’s Tournament across CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV. Through the first-round games on Friday, the four networks saw their second-best figure yet (four-network, combined TV-only average of 8.3 million includes the First Four). That’s behind only 2021, which was a COVID-impact tourney that saw the First Four air on a Thursday night with first-round games on Friday and Saturday. Oakland’s upset of Kentucky on Thursday night led opening day games with 6.21 million viewers on CBS. That is the best audience for a game on the opening day of Round 1 since CBS and Turner first began airing each individual game back in 2011. It’s also the best Round 1 game overall since Duke-North Dakota State in 2019 drew 6.22 million on a Friday night on CBS (Zion Williamson effect). That Oakland-UK number helped CBS, TNT, truTV and TBS to the best opening day figure since 2015. That came after the First Four on truTV on Tuesday/Wednesday night was up 14% from last year.
On the women’s side, ESPN2 and ESPNU averaged 185,000 viewers for the First Four games on Wednesday and Thursday night, up 23% from last year. Arizona-Auburn led the way on Thursday on ESPN2 with 236,000 viewers.
