The dearth of upsets throughout the first week of the NCAA Event led to discourse about whether or not NIL and the switch portal are hurting the game in the long term.
None of that stopped the event from hitting some document numbers for viewership.
The primary two rounds of the event averaged 9.4 million viewers per sport throughout CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV — the very best common viewers for the primary week since 1993, in accordance with Nielsen on Tuesday. That was up by 4 p.c on final 12 months’s mark of 9.04 million.
The event set an opening-day document Thursday by averaging 9.1 million viewers, per Nielsen. The momentum continued into the Spherical of 32 with a mean viewership of 10.2 million over the weekend, making it the most-watched Spherical of 32 since 2017.
A part of the equation: In 2020, Nielsen started counting out-of-home viewership at institutions akin to eating places and sports activities bars. The variety of high-profile packages enjoying — together with Duke, Kentucky, UCLA and UConn — can also have contributed together with a high-interest matchup Saturday between Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad and John Calipari’s victorious Arkansas Razorbacks.
Kentucky’s second-round win over Illinois on Sunday drew a mean of 15.3 million viewers, Nielsen discovered.
The First 4 spherical (the quartet of play-in video games on Tuesday and Wednesday) additionally did a document 7.4 million viewers on TruTV.
–Discipline Stage Media
