Thursday night's upset of Oakland vs. Kentucky led to the opener, which was watched by 6.21 million viewers on CBS.Getty Images
Early television viewership numbers (excluding streaming) for the NCAA men's tournament have been released for CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV. Through Friday's first-round games, the four networks posted his second-best numbers ever (four networks combined, TV-only average of 8.3 million, beating his first four) includes). This is a fraction of what happened in 2021, when the First Four was broadcast on Thursday nights and the first round was played on Friday and Saturday due to the coronavirus. Thursday night's Oakland-Kentucky upset led the season opener with 6.21 million viewers on CBS. This is the highest attendance for an opening day game in the first round since CBS and Turner first began broadcasting each game in 2011. It is also the highest overall first-round game since Duke-North Dakota State in 2019, which drew 6.22 million people for a single game. Friday night on CBS (Zion Williamson effect). This Auckland-UK figure helped CBS, TNT, truTV and TBS achieve their highest opening day numbers since 2015. This number comes after truTV's First 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights 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 nights, a 23% increase from last year. Arizona vs. Auburn led Thursday with 236,000 viewers on ESPN2.
