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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Via AP news wire

March Madness surges to its best TV start since 2011 with viewership up 5%

NCAA VCU North Carolina Basketball - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The NCAA Tournament is off to its best start since CBS and TNT began showing all of the games in 2011.

The tournament averaged 9.8 million for the first three days (the First Four on Tuesday and Wednesday along with Thursday's first round) according to Nielsen, a 5% increase from last year.

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