CBS secures strong audience for Selection Show

As is typically the case, there were a lot of interested parties watching Sunday’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament Selection Show.

According to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, CBS secured 5.7 million viewers for Sunday’s telecast. That number is down slightly from last year’s show, which drew 5.9 million viewers on CBS, but has beaten every other year since 2019.

CBS drew its second-best NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Show since 2019 on Sunday.

5.7 million viewers.

-3% from 2024
+12% from 2023
+15% from 2022 pic.twitter.com/BIQTlhtcLT

— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) March 18, 2025

This year’s Selection Show felt a bit different after the passing of legendary CBS Sports host Greg Gumbel. A longtime host for the network’s March Madness coverage, Gumbel also missed last year’s NCAA Tournament, citing personal reasons at the time. CBS paid tribute to Gumbel at the beginning of Sunday’s telecast. The past two years, Adam Zucker has taken the driver’s seat during CBS’s Selection Show program.

As has been the norm in recent years, CBS revealed the bracket in a timely manner. The full bracket was revealed by 6:34 p.m. ET, just over half an hour after the broadcast began. CBS, of course, has faced criticism in prior years for dragging out the bracket reveal, which even resulted in a leaked bracket nearly ten years ago.

Luckily, those days have past, and CBS gives the fans what they want in a reasonable amount of time for the Selection Show.