Fox’s inaugural postseason college hoops tournament, the College Basketball Crown, saw some lackluster viewership numbers. The title game on Sunday aired at 5 p.m. ET on Fox, right after the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament concluded on ABC, attracting 822,000 viewers for Nebraska’s victory over UCF. This audience was 62% larger than the 508,000 viewers for the NIT championship game that aired on ESPN the previous Thursday.
As anticipated, the Crown championship game topped the viewership for the first-year event. The semifinals held on Saturday afternoon averaged 716,000 viewers on Fox, according to Sports Business Journal.
Overall, the College Basketball Crown games averaged 260,000 viewers on Fox and FS1, surpassing this year’s NIT average of 212,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU. However, when excluding ESPNU games, the Crown would have fallen short of the NIT audience, as noted in a report.
It was no surprise that the Crown semifinals and championship significantly boosted the tournament’s viewership, benefiting from favorable TV slots during weekend afternoons on a major broadcast network. In contrast, first round and quarterfinal games on FS1 during the week attracted notably smaller audiences.
If Fox’s objective was to achieve incremental viewership growth, then the College Basketball Crown can be deemed a success. With no postseason college basketball coverage alternative, having something was better than nothing. Whether the Crown will endure, as suggested by Fox play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson, remains to be seen in the coming years.
“THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL CROWN, FOLKS! THE INAUGURAL SEASON! TRUST US, THIS TOURNAMENT IS GONNA BE HERE FOR A LONG, LONG TIME! AND THE FIRST WINNERS EVER? BIG RED! CHAMPIONS OF THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL CROWN, AND WINNERS OF $300,000!” – Gus Johnson 🏀🎙️pic.twitter.com/ayKxDFAp14
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 7, 2025
