Duke vs. Wisconsin is Most-Watched NCAA Final in 18 Years

By Chris Ariens 

CBS’s coverage of the NCAA Championship Game, which saw Duke defeat Wisconsin, averaged 28.3 million total viewers, up +33% from last year. It’s the most-watched NCAA final since 1997’s title game between Arizona and Kentucky. As TVSpy reports, the Milwaukee and Raleigh/Durham markets had the highest rating/share of all U.S. metered markets.

The championship game peaked with 33.4 million viewers between 11-11:15pmET.

Airing on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV, 2015’s was the most-watched NCAA Tournament in 22 years, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals. The 2015 NCAA Tournament averaged 11.3 million total viewers, up +8% from last year. NCAA March Madness Live had a record 80.7 million live video streams with 17.8 million hours of live video watched during this year’s tournament. As for the social side, the tournament saw a record 350 million social impressions across Facebook and Twitter, up +45% over 2014.

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