The first full day of action in the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship posted the tournament's best first-day overnights since the tournament expanded to four telecast windows for the entire day in 1991.
Thursday's games averaged a 6.0 overnight HH rating across CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV, up 3% over last year's first full day. Thursday featured two upsets from a pair of 12-seeds in Harvard over Cincinnati and North Dakota State over Oklahoma (pictured), and a single-day tournament record four overtime contests.
Individually, the first daytime telecast window (noon-4:45 p.m. ET) rose 12% over last year to a 4.6 rating, while the second window (2:45-7:15 p.m. ET) drew a 5.4 rating. In primetime, the first window (6:45-10:30 p.m.) was up 4% from last year to a 7.7 and the late window (9:30 p.m.-1:45 a.m. ET) averaged a 6.2 rating.
The overall tournament average rating, including the "First Four," is a 5.6, up 8% from last year, and is also the highest rating for the tournament at this point in the event since 1991.
