Florida's comeback win over Houston averages 18.1 million viewers

NEW YORK (AP) — Florida's comeback victory over Houston in Monday night's NCAA title game was the most-watched championship game in six years.

The Gators' 65-63 victory averaged 18.1 million viewers on CBS according to early numbers from Nielsen, a 22% increase over last year's game on TBS, TNT and truTV. The audience peaked at 21.1 million during the game's final minutes.

It is the first time since Virginia's overtime victory over Texas Tech in 2019 that the championship game has averaged above 18 million. The CBS broadcast that year averaged 19.63 million.

The three Final Four games averaged 16.4 million, its best audience in eight years and up 21% from 2024.

Saturday's national semifinals averaged 15.5 million, its highest in eight years.

The men's tournament averaged 10.2 million on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, a 3% increase over last year.

Connecticut's 82-59 win over South Carolina in the women's title game averaged 8.6 million on ABC and peaked at 9.8 million. That is down from last year's record audience of 18.9 million for South Carolina-Iowa in what was Caitlin Clark's last college game.

It is a 75% increase though from the UConn-South Carolina final in 2022, which was on ESPN.

Friday night's national semifinals averaged 3.9 million, the third-highest since ESPN acquired the rights in 1996.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports