A highly anticipated First Four of the 2026 NCAA Tournament delivered for CBS Sports and TNT Sports. Tuesday and Wednesday’s games drew the highest viewership ever on truTV.
An average of 7.5 million viewers watched the four matchups in Dayton to get March Madness underway. Wednesday’s game between Miami (OH) and SMU led the way with 2.8 million viewers on average, which is a 17% increase from the previous top game.
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This week’s games marked the first for the NCAA Tournament since Nielsen debuted its Big Data + Panel metric in September 2025. Full viewership data for the other three First Four games was not available at the time of publication.
CBS Sports and TNT Sports score record-setting viewership for the First Four
Most-watched First Four with 7.5 million viewers
*Under traditional format (Tues/Wed) pic.twitter.com/HAEetZYzm4
— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) March 20, 2026
The surge in First Four TV ratings comes after a strong regular season for men’s college basketball. Household viewership increased by 10%, and the three major networks all saw surges, as well. FOX saw its best men’s college basketball season yet with a 38% increase while CBS had a 10% uptick from last season. ESPN also said its viewership was up 25% year-over-year, fueled by its best-ever “Big Monday” season.
That success continued into conference championship week. The Big Ten title game between Purdue and Michigan averaged 4.72 million viewers on CBS to become the most-watched championship game in conference history. It topped the ACC championship between Virginia and Duke, which ranked as the second-best TV ratings for the title game on record at 4.09 million viewers.
This story will be updated.