The college basketball regular season saw healthy viewership rebounds for national networks compared to the COVID-wracked '20-21 season, retuning to levels seen right before the pandemic. CBS led the way with an average of 1.25 million viewers, up 5% from 1.19 million viewers last season. That was on par with the 1.29 million two seasons ago. CBS had three of the top five most-watched regular season games with Kentucky-Auburn in January (No. 3 at 2.48 million), Kentucky-Arkansas in February (No. 4 at 2.36 million) and Ohio State-Purdue in January (No. 5 at 2.28 million). ESPN and ESPN2, which have the lion’s share of college hoops games during the regular season, both saw gains in '21-22. ESPN averaged 928,000 viewers, up 21%, while ESPN2 averaged 281,000 viewers, up 22%. ESPNU also saw a 6% uptick. The top two regular-season games this season were on ESPN -- North Carolina-Duke in March (No. 1 at 3.98 million) and Gonzaga-Duke in November (No. 2 at 2.79 million). Fox Sports also saw gains for its networks. Fox averaged 858,000 viewers for games, up 8%, while FS1 averaged 183,000, up 13%. The Fox-controlled Big Ten Network averaged 215,000 viewers for games, up 9%.
Men's college basketball regular-season viewership (excludes conference tourneys) | |||
NETWORK | 2021-22 (000) | 2020-21 (000) | 2019-20 (000) |
CBS | 1,250 | 1,190 | 1,290 |
ESPN | 928 | 765 | 960 |
Fox | 858 | 795 | 862 |
ESPN2 | 281 | 230 | 265 |
BTN | 215 | 198 | n/a |
FS1 | 183 | 162 | 180 |
ESPNU | 54 | 51 | 68 |