March Madness TV ratings announced with 32-year high despite lack of upsets

MARCH Madness television ratings hit a 32-year high despite the lack of a ‘Cinderella’ team.

The men’s NCAA Tournament took over television schedules on CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV last week.

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And the first two rounds of action brought big results for the television networks.

According to Nielsen ratings, the NCAA Tournament averaged 9.4 million viewers per game last week.

That makes it the highest average audience since 1993.

The first round average audience on Thursday and Friday was 8.8 million per game.

That was up two per cent from 2024.

Second round games on Saturday and Sunday were watched by an average of 10.2 million viewers.

The number is a three per cent rise from the same time last year.

And it also made it the most-watched round of 32 since 2017.

The biggest audience of the week was Sunday afternoon when 15.3 million fans watched Kentucky beat Illinois.

The tournament has not had many upsets this year or a “Cinderella” team.

It will resume Thursday night with the Sweet 16 stage.

But viewers are not happy at the change in the schedule for the latter stages.

Basketball fans loved having wall-to-wall games from midday until the early hours last week.

But the Sweet 16 games will all take place in the evening and overlap.

Thursday’s action will begin at 7.09 pm ET with the last of four games tipping off at 10.09 pm ET.

And Friday will feature exactly the same setup.

“What are these times?!” one fan raged.

“Space them out! Only four games a day and you put them all within four hours of each other.

“Also a game starting at 10 pm is crazy.”

Another posted on X, “Games starting at 10 pm when there’s four games will never make sense to me.”

While a third said, “Late night on Thursday!

“Several eastern and central teams need to do a major time reset.

“Not fair for the coastal west to have a time advantage.”

And another implored, “Let’s get these games rolling a few hours earlier.”

CBS will show a double-header both nights with games at 7.09 pm ET and 9.39 pm ET.

TBS and TruTV will also show a double-header on both days at 7.39 pm ET and 10.09 pm ET.