Overview
- CBS’s NCAA men’s Selection Show averaged 6.41 million viewers, up 12% year over year and the highest since 2014, with a 7.1 million peak.
- The Purdue–Michigan Big Ten title game averaged 4.72 million viewers, the largest audience on record for that event and a powerful lead-in to the reveal.
- The ACC final between Duke and Virginia drew 4.1 million viewers, up about one-third from last year, and the Big 12 final of Arizona–Houston set a record at 3.1 million.
- Mid-major finals trended down year over year, including Utah State–San Diego State at 1.3 million (-8%), VCU–Dayton at 1.19 million (-17%), and Northern Iowa–UIC at 931,000 (-20%).
- Nielsen’s expanded out-of-home tracking and new Big Data plus panel methodology complicate historical comparisons, though several increases appear to exceed what the changes alone would explain.