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Monday night, Michigan clinched its first national title since 1989 as the Wolverines held off UConn. The matchup also delivered solid TV ratings across TBS, TNT and truTV, becoming the most-watched national title game in seven years.
Michigan’s victory averaged 18.3 million viewers, CBS and TNT Sports announced. That includes a peak audience of 20.4 million as it became the most-watched national championship since 2019. As a whole, the 2026 NCAA Tournament averaged 10.9 million viewers, which marks a 7% increase to make it the second most-watched March Madness since 1994.
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For comparison, last year’s national championship game between Florida and Houston – which aired on CBS – averaged 18.1 million viewers and had a peak audience of 21.1 million viewers. That number came before Nielsen introduced the Big Data + Panel metric last fall, which has played a role in recent sports TV ratings increases.
The national title game followed up a strong showing in the Final Four, led by Michigan’s dominant victory over Arizona. That matchup averaged 14.293 million viewers across TBS, TNT and truTV. That includes 811,000 people watching the “Fab Five” alt-cast on truTV, according to Programming Insider.
The first game of the night brought 14.2 million viewers on average as UConn fought off Illinois in the Final Four, according to the Sports Business Journal. Both games were notably down from last year’s semifinals, which aired on CBS rather than cable.
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This season’s title game moved to cable as part of the annual rotation between CBS and TNT Sports, which alternate as the home of the Final Four. When TBS, TNT and truTV last carried the national championship in 2024, more than 14.8 million viewers tuned in, according to data from Sports Media Watch.
Heading into the Final Four, the 2026 NCAA Tournament saw another increase in viewership this year after a surge during the regular season. TV…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/2026-ncaa-tournament-michigan-vs-212543934.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-08 21:25:00
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