A quartet of No. 1 seeds led CBS to the most-watched Final Four since 2017. Saturday’s pair of games averaged 15.3 million viewers on CBS, marking the highest viewership for the men’s Final Four in eight years, a 19% increase compared to last year’s event on the TNT Sports networks. Viewership peaked at an impressive 20.4 million on Saturday night.
Final Four scores 15.3 million viewers on CBS, the most-watched since 2017.
Coverage peaked with 20.4 million viewers.
*Numbers expected to increase when Final data is available on Tuesday pic.twitter.com/sri6P5REyi
— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) April 6, 2025
Leading the way was Houston’s thrilling comeback win over Duke, which averaged 16 million viewers in the late window on CBS, a 13% increase over last year’s UConn-Alabama game. This matchup was the most-watched game of the NCAA Tournament so far. Meanwhile, Florida’s six-point win over Auburn in the early window averaged 14.6 million viewers, making it the highest early-window Final Four game since 2017, up 27% from last year’s Purdue-NC State game (11.45 million viewers).
Saturday’s strong Final Four viewership has resulted in a 2% year-over-year increase in total NCAA Tournament viewing across CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV, with the men’s tournament now averaging 9.9 million viewers per window. The eight-year high dispels any notion that college basketball is struggling as a viewership draw. Even with claims that the absence of Cinderellas would hurt viewership, data consistently shows that the best teams attract the largest audiences.
It is important to note that these figures are based on Nielsen’s fast national measurements, including expanded out-of-home viewing. CBS anticipates that these numbers will rise once final measurements are released on Tuesday.
