Miami of Ohio showed it can move the needle in its lone win of the NCAA Tournament.
Wednesday’s Miami (Ohio)-SMU NCAA men’s basketball tournament “First Four” game averaged 2.8 million viewers on truTV, trailing only UCLA-Michigan State in 2021 (3.15M) — which aired on TBS as part of a COVID-altered schedule — as the most-watched game in the round (dates back to 2011).
The Redhawks’ win increased 17% from Xavier-Texas last year, which held the previous high with 2.4 million (not counting 2021).
Miami, which was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Friday, was one of the stories of the college basketball season — compiling an undefeated regular season record before a loss in the first round of the MAC Tournament.
None of the other “First Four” games reached the two million mark. Earlier Wednesday, Prairie View A&M-Lehigh averaged 1.5 million (+6%).
Facing a record-setting World Baseball Classic final — which with over ten million viewers performed more like a World Series game — Tuesday’s Texas-NC State game averaged 1.8 million, down 20% from North Carolina-San Diego State last year (2.2M). Howard-UMBC led in with 1.4 million, on par with a year ago.
Despite the Tuesday declines, the “First Four” grossed 7.5 million viewers — edging past last year (7.4M) to rank as the highest for the event in its traditional two-day format. (The games grossed 7.8 million in the COVID-altered year of 2021, when they all took place on the same day and two aired on TBS.)
Though all four games air in distinct timeslots, the “First Four” counts as a single telecast window in the CBS/TNT Sports NCAA Tournament viewership average, a relic from the days when there was a single play-in game.
Though officially a record, the increase is well within the range that can be explained by Nielsen’s methodological changes of the past year, specifically the expansion of its out-of-home viewing sample and shift to a new currency that combines “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes with its traditional panel.