Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThursday night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games made up the most-watched prime-time first-round slate in March Madness history, averaging 12.2 million viewers across CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV.
The most-watched game in the prime-time window was the University of Arkansas’ 79-72 victory over the University of Kansas on CBS.
The other early prime-time games were Tennessee-Wofford on TNT, Yale-Texas A&M on TBS and Drake-Missouri on truTV.
Three of the four games were competitive. Texas A&M didn’t pull away from Yale until late in the second half, and 11th-seeded Drake topped No. 6 seed Missouri.
The nightcap on CBS was St. John’s beating Omaha 83-53.
Overall, Thursday’s 16 games averaged 9.1 million viewers, a 6% increase over last year.
The tournament through Thursday—including the First Four—is averaging 8.8 million, the most under the current format with 68 teams. That’s is also an 8% jump over 2024.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.