CBS Sports and Turner Sports’ exclusive coverage of last night’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship – Kansas defeating North Carolina, 72-69, with the biggest halftime comeback in championship game history – airing across TBS, TNT and truTV produced the most-viewed NCAA Men’s Championship Game telecast ever on cable television. The Kansas/UNC game delivered an average of 18.1 million viewers, based on total audience delivery, an increase of 4% over last year’s national championship (Baylor vs. Gonzaga).
Last night’s Kansas/UNC telecast is the third most-watched college basketball game in cable TV history, with Saturday’s UNC/Duke Final Four National Semifinal matchup (which averaged 18.5 million viewers) ranking second all-time.
The 2022 NCAA Men’s Tournament airing across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averaged 10.7 million total viewers and a 17.0 share (the percentage of households or viewers who are watching television at that time) for its 67 live game telecasts, both up 13% over last year. The 17.0 share is the best for the entire NCAA Men’s Tournament since 1994.
NCAA March Madness Live set multiple all-time records for last night’s Kansas/UNC championship, including the largest audience and most minutes consumed for a single game in MML history. Kansas/UNC netted a peak of 1.6 million concurrent streams, breaking the previous record set just two days prior during the Duke/UNC showdown. This year’s NCAA Men’s Tournament generated the most live uniques for any full tournament in MML history, a 12% increase over the previous record year set in 2019.
Official NCAA Men’s March Madness social handles generated record engagement for this year’s NCAA Men’s Tournament, with a 58% increase vs. the previous all-time high, set in 2021. For last night’s Championship Game, social engagements saw a 33% lift compared to the prior record.
Per Release