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NCAA Tournament Sets Rating Records Despite Lack of Close Games
The first day of wall-to-wall NCAA tournament action featured very little intrigue as only three of the 16 games were decided by fewer than eight points, but that did little to temper the enthusiasm of the public. CBS Sports and TNT Sports announced that they'd delivered the most-watched NCAA tournament first round ever in a Friday night release.
Coverage across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averged 9.1 million viewers, which is a 6% increase over 2024. Including the First Four, tournament viewership is up 8% to an average of 8.8 million viewers.
CBS Sports and TNT Sports Deliver the Most-Watched NCAA Tournament First Round Opening Day Ever pic.twitter.com/RrwWYyqCPC
— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) March 21, 2025
The Thursday primetime window, powered by a matchup between Arkansas and Kansas with Bill Self and Rick Pitino, averaged 12.2 million viewers to make it the most-watched window in the tournament's history.
Through the first 12 games of Friday, the intrigue and nail-biting finishes have still yet to materialize. It would be nice for interested observers to enjoy some of that magic but these numbers leave open the question as to how much competitiveness actually matters. Starting on Saturday, the inventory gets halved and there are more standalone windows so a few buzzer-beaters or even full 40-minute games couldn't hurt.
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Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.