NCAA Tournament Selection Show expands to two hours

The official NCAA Tournament selection show will get an expansion. This year’s show which has aired on CBS dating back to 1982 first as a half-hour program hosted by Brent Musburger, now will air for two hours starting at 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 13 and running until 7:30.

Not only does this mark the first year of a two-hour Selection Show, it also marks the first year that TBS will air both the Final Four and the National Championship Game which means the entire championship weekend will be totally on cable.

This is the first time the selection show has expanded since 2002 when CBS stretched the show to an hour from 6-7 pm.  Now with the show airing at its original 5:30 p.m. start time, there’s the opportunity for more interviews, analysis and discussion and the interview with the Tournament Selection Committee chairman won’t feel so rushed as in previous years.

Ernie Johnson and Greg Gumbel will co-host the show and they’ll be joined by analysts Clark Kellogg, Charles Barkley, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, Seth Davis and Doug Gottlieb. They’ll break down the selections, the brackets and note the omissions.

The Chairman of the NCAA selection committee, Joe Castiglione of Oklahoma will join the CBS/Turner Sporst panel to talk about the process of choosing the 68-team tournament.

In addition to airing the show on CBS, it will streamed live on the NCAA March Madness live app which will be available on mobiles, tablets as well as desktop computers.

This is the 6th year that CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV will air the entire 67-game NCAA Tournament, but marks the first time since 1981 where CBS will not air the National Championshp Game.

The broadcast teams for the NCAA Tourament which will not include TNT’s Marv Albert this year will be announced at a later date.

[Turner Sports]