First Four brings in record-setting viewership

The Miami (Ohio) debate and intrigue may have sparked a viewership increase for the 2026 First Four.

CBS Sports and TNT Sports announced on Friday evening that the NCAA Tournament’s First Four delivered record-setting viewership, grossing 7.5 million viewers on truTV over Tuesday and Wednesday. That tops the 2025 First Four, which resulted in 7.4 million viewers.

The Miami-SMU game led the way as the most-watched First Four game ever, averaging 2.8 million viewers. Xavier-Texas was the most-watched First Four game in 2025, averaging 2.4 million viewers.

CBS Sports and TNT Sports score record-setting viewership for the First Four

🏀 Most-watched First Four with 7.5 million viewers
🏀 Miami (OH) vs. SMU is most-watched First Four game with 2.8 million viewers

*Under traditional format (Tues/Wed) pic.twitter.com/HAEetZYzm4

— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) March 20, 2026

Awful Announcing’s Manny Soloway revealed the specific viewership numbers for each 2026 First Four game, with Miami-SMU averaging 2.841 million, Texas-NC State averaging 1.8 million viewers, Prairie View A&M-Lehigh averaging 1.514 million viewers, and UMBC-Howard averaging 1.352 million viewers.

First four viewership:

Miami (OH) vs. SMU: 2.841M
Texas vs. NC State: 1.8M
Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh: 1.514M
UMBC/Howard: 1.352M

— Manny Soloway (@sportsontvguy) March 20, 2026

This is the first March Madness under Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel viewership methodology, which has generally increased viewership compared to prior years.

After many skeptics in recent weeks, most notably TNT Sports’ Bruce Pearl, the MAC’s Miami made the field of 68 as an 11-seed and proceeded to come away with an 89-79 upset victory over fellow 11-seed SMU on Wednesday night in Dayton. The RedHawks advanced to the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but lost to 78-56 to 6-seed Tennessee on Friday.