The NCAA Tournament returned from a one-year hiatus with a record audience for the “First Four.”
Thursday’s UCLA-Michigan State NCAA Tournament “First Four” game averaged 3.15 million viewers on TBS, marking the most-watched game in the ten year history of the round (dates back to 2011). The previous high was 2.23 million for Tennessee-Iowa seven years ago.
Keep in mind the Bruins’ win was just the second “First Four” game to ever air on TBS. Prior to this year, all First Four games aired solely on TruTV.
Earlier in the night, TBS averaged 2.01 million for Drake-Wichita State — the fifth-largest “First Four” audience on record.
As for the games on TruTV, Norfolk State-Appalachian State averaged 1.47 million and Texas Southern-St. Mary’s 1.13 million.
The complete “First Four” grossed 7.77 million viewers across TBS and TruTV, up 35% from 2019 (5.39M) and easily the largest audience for the event. CBS/Turner Sports has always treated the “First Four” as a single telecast window, combining the viewership for the four games. On a per-game basis, the games averaged 2.00 million — up 47% from 2019 (1.36M).
Under this year’s altered NCAA Tournament schedule, all four “First Four” games took place on the same day in overlapping doubleheaders on TBS and TruTV. Prior to this year, the games were split across two nights in separate telecast windows.
Most-watched NCAA Tournament “First Four” games
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.19, CBS/Turner]
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