The first two days of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament have become like national holidays in American culture. Plenty of fans took PTO or ended up “sick” on the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament so they could plant themselves in front of multiscreens to tune into basketball for over 12 hours each day.
It appears that fans were even more excited for this year’s first round as CBS Sports and TNT announced on Monday that this year broke viewership records on the first day of the tournament. It’s officially the best first March Madness day on record for viewership as the networks saw an average of 9.8 million people tuning in to the games last Thursday. This number is up six percent from last year. This number includes viewership from CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV.
