The first day of wall-to-wall NCAA tournament action featured very little intrigue as only three of the 16 games were decided by fewer than eight points, but that did little to temper the enthusiasm of the public. CBS Sports and TNT Sports announced that they'd delivered the most-watched NCAA tournament first round ever in a Friday night release.
Coverage across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averged 9.1 million viewers, which is a 6% increase over 2024. Including the First Four, tournament viewership is up 8% to an average of 8.8 million viewers.
