Here’s Who Is Leading the 2021 TVNewser March Madness Bracket Challenge After Round 1

By A.J. Katz 

The leader after Round 1 of the 2021 TVNewser March Madness Bracket Challenge is Bloomberg TV anchor and editor at large Francine Lacqua.

The Bloomberg Newser—who anchors Bloomberg Surveillance: Early Edition out of London—was 26 for 32 in Round 1 of this year’s challenge. No, she didn’t choose No. 15 Oral Roberts over No. 2 Ohio State (who really did, though?), No. 13 Ohio over No. 4 UVA, or No. 14 seed Abilene Christian over No. 3 Texas. But she was on point when it came to most other matchups, including correctly picking the winner of the the 11 vs. 6 seed matchups, the 10 vs. 7’s, and notably chose No. 12 Oregon State to knock off No. 5 seed Tennessee.

Lacqua is one of the few who has UCLA in the Sweet 16, a pick that’s looking pretty good right now, as it will certainly be tough for Abilene Christian to repeat its Saturday heroics on Monday.

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Lacqua has Gonzaga beating Houston in this year’s National Championship game.

CNBC Closing Bell co-anchor Sara Eisen, who always seems to perform well in our annual Bracket Challenge, is right behind Lacqua with 25 points after round one.

WETA svp/general manager of the PBS NewsHour Michael Rancilio, and CNN Newsroom anchor Kate Bolduan are tied for 3rd place with 23 points a piece.

Following that group are a whopping 7 participants with 22 points each: NBC News chief White House correspondent and Saturday Today co-host Peter Alexander, CNBC Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen, CNBC.com managing editor Jeffrey McCracken, NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent and MSNBC Way too Early host Kasie Hunt, Bloomberg Surveillance co-anchor Tom Keene, CNBC Power Lunch co-anchor Tyler Mathisen, and Fox Business correspondent Edward Lawrence.  

Needless to say, this challenge is still WIDE open going into the Round of 32 games, which begin at 12:10 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS with Loyola-Chicago vs. Illinois, and continue through Monday evening.

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