This weekend’s lineup of live sports programming starts on the basketball court as both the men’s and women’s March Madness NCAA college basketball tournaments enter the final rounds. 

On Saturday, the men’s Elite Eight round of the tournament begins with TBS’ coverage of the Houston-Villanova and Arkansas-Duke contests. CBS’s Elite Eight round coverage on Sunday will feature the winners from Friday night’s St. Peter’s-Purdue, Providence-Kansas, North Carolina-UCLA and Iowa State-Miami games. 

On the women’s side, ESPN Saturday will televise the final games of the tournament’s Sweet 16 round, including the Notre Dame-N.C. State and Indiana-UConn games, while ESPN2 airs the Tennessee-Louisville and South Dakota-Michigan contests. On Sunday ESPN will air the first two women’s Elite Eight matchups. 

On the ice, ABC on Saturday will televise the Chicago Blackhawks-Vegas Golden Knights hockey match. TNT on Sunday will air the Tampa Bay Lightning-N.Y. Islanders matchup. Also on Sunday, ESPN will air regional finals coverage from the NCAA Men’s college hockey tournament.

CBS will offer weekend live coverage of the Professional Bullriders starting Saturday with the Bucking Battle Lucas Oil Invitational and Sunday featuring the Bucking Battle Kubota Invitational event.  

Fox on Sunday will televise the NASCAR Cup EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix race. On the links, Golf Channel and NBC will offer weekend match play coverage of the PGA’s WGC Dell Technologies tournament. 

In the ring, Showtime on Saturday will televise a live fight card featuring as its main event the Tim Tszyu-Terrell Gausha junior middleweight fight. On ESPN, lightweights Miguel Berchelt and Jermiah Nakathila will battle in the telecast’s main event bout, On DAZN, Kiko Martinez will defend his featherweight title against Josh Warrington.  

Also on Saturday, ESPN will step into the octagon to televise heavyweights Curtis Blaydes and Chris Daukaus battle in the UFC Fight Night main event bout. 

U.S. Coronavirus fears will alter the annual “March Madness" basketball tournament as the NCAA has decided to hold the popular college basketball event in virtually empty arenas.

NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement: “The NCAA continues to assess the impact of COVID-19 in consultation with public health officials and our COVID-19 advisory panel. Based on their advice and my discussions with the NCAA Board of Governors, I have made the decision to conduct our upcoming championship events, including the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, with only essential staff and limited family attendance. While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States. This decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes. We recognize the opportunity to compete in an NCAA national championship is an experience of a lifetime for the students and their families. Today, we will move forward and conduct championships consistent with the current information and will continue to monitor and make adjustments as needed.”

The March 19-April 8 tournament, for which CBS and Turner Sports hold the television rights, is the highest-profile sporting event in the U.S. to be affected by the coronavirus outbreak -- which on Wednesday was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization -- but it’s not the only sport making alternative plans. Tomorrow night’s Golden State Warriors-Brooklyn Nets National Basketball Association game will be played without fans, according to reports. 

CBS’s Sunday doubleheader coverage of the 2017 “March Madness” NCAA Basketball Tournament scored big on social media, helping set the stage for the tournament’s Final Four weekend.

North Carolina’s thrilling win over Kentucky on CBS yesterday drew a whopping 5.1 million Twitter and Facebook interactions from more than 2.2 million unique users, according to Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings report. CBS’ coverage of South Carolina’s win over Florida drew 1.6 million social media interactions from 928,000 unique social media accounts, said Nielsen.

CBS will air the tournament's "Final Four" games Saturday night and the "March Madness" championship game on Monday. 

AMC’s The Walking Dead slayed social media Sunday, drawing 555,000 Twitter and Facebook interactions to lead all entertainment shows for the day. Hallmark Channel’s When Calls The Heart finished second with nearly 100,000 social media interactions, according to Nielsen.

The 2017 “March Madness” men’s NCAA college basketball tournament was a major player on social media Sunday, driving millions of Facebook and Twitter interactions, according to Nielsen.

The tourney’s March 19 social media onslaught was led by the TNT’s telecast of South Carolina’s upset win over Duke, which drew nearly 3 million social media interactions from more than 1.3 million unique users, according to Nielsen.

TNT’s Arkansas-North Carolina telecast drew 1.2 million Facebook and Twitter interactions from 654,000 unique users, said network officials. Three CBS "March Madness" telecasts – Wichita State-Kentucky, Michigan-Louisville and Michigan State-Kansas -- all finished among the top five most social live sports events for the night, according to Nielsen. 

Overall, Sunday's coverage of the tournament across four networks averaged 11.9 million viewers, an increase of 34% over last year's coverage, according to Nielsen. 

AMC’s The Walking Dead was the most talked about entertainment show on social media Sunday, generating 482,000 interactions from 307,000 unique users, Nielsen said.