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Even without the typical "madness" of previous years, people are still tuning in to the 2025 NCAA Tournament in record numbers. March Madness viewership for the first two rounds has hit a 32-year high, according to an announcement from the networks that carry the tournament.
Viewership of the NCAA tournament, which is aired on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, is averaging 9.4 million viewers through the second round. Sunday's games, marking the second half of the Round of 32, averaged 10.1 million. The viewership numbers are the best since 1993, according to the networks.
The high viewership comes despite the relative lack of Cinderellas or upsets in the tournament so far. For the first time since the tournament expanded in 1975, all of the teams in the Sweet Sixteen are from the four major conferences, after years of having at least seven conferences represented in the second weekend.
The tournament only had one buzzer-beater in the first two rounds, with Derik Queen hitting a (potentially controversial) game-winning layup to send No. 4 Maryland to the Sweet Sixteen. The only "Cinderella" left is No. 10 Arkansas, coached by college basketball legend John Calipari; the next lowest-seeded teams are a pair of No. 6 seeds.
With a largely chalk bracket and the lack of mid-majors in the next round, it'll be interesting to see if viewership holds strong for the second weekend. But a packed schedule of high-level matchups featuring highly-visible stars, like Duke's Cooper Flagg, is likely to keep drawing viewers to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight.
Continue reading...
Viewership of the NCAA tournament, which is aired on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, is averaging 9.4 million viewers through the second round. Sunday's games, marking the second half of the Round of 32, averaged 10.1 million. The viewership numbers are the best since 1993, according to the networks.
The high viewership comes despite the relative lack of Cinderellas or upsets in the tournament so far. For the first time since the tournament expanded in 1975, all of the teams in the Sweet Sixteen are from the four major conferences, after years of having at least seven conferences represented in the second weekend.
The tournament only had one buzzer-beater in the first two rounds, with Derik Queen hitting a (potentially controversial) game-winning layup to send No. 4 Maryland to the Sweet Sixteen. The only "Cinderella" left is No. 10 Arkansas, coached by college basketball legend John Calipari; the next lowest-seeded teams are a pair of No. 6 seeds.
With a largely chalk bracket and the lack of mid-majors in the next round, it'll be interesting to see if viewership holds strong for the second weekend. But a packed schedule of high-level matchups featuring highly-visible stars, like Duke's Cooper Flagg, is likely to keep drawing viewers to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight.
Continue reading...
