We’re entering a brave new world beginning this year. You have gotten used to having TBS, TNT and truTV join CBS in televising the NCAA Tournament over the last four seasons. Up until this year, CBS had been airing the Final Four and National Championship Game without interruption since 1982. That changes this year as TBS begins airing the Final Four.
It was supposed to begin airing the Final Four and the National Championship Game in even years beginning in 2016 and continuing through 2024. CBS would air them in odd years beginning in 2017 through 2023.
However, Turner wanted to carry the Final Four starting this year, so it forged a compromise with CBS splitting the Final Four and Championship Game in 2014 and 2015. TBS will air the Final Four with CBS airing the National Championship this year and next.
Turner and CBS announced this new arrangement for the split of Final Four Weekend in May last year.
In November, we learned that Turner planned to produce three separate dedicated feeds for the National Semifinals, the traditional national telecast on TBS with Jim Nantz, Greg Anthony, Steve Kerr and Tracy Wolfson and two localized feeds on TNT and truTV for the teams in the Final Four in this case, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky and Wisconsin.
Turner is in the process of hiring announcers for the local feeds. For the team-centric telecasts on TNT and truTV, Turner will produce UConn vs. Florida and Kentucky vs. Wisconsin with separate production crews, local announcers, specialized graphics and their own halftime shows to be hosted by the game crews. No word on channel assignments or who will call the games, but that announcement is expected in the coming days.
A change for the studio shows, Ernie Johnson will be the main host for the Final Four and National Championship with analysts Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg and Kenny Smith. Greg Gumbel will be secondary host with Seth Davis, Doug Gottlieb, Grant Hill, Reggie Miller and various college coaches.
The bridge show in between Final Four games will be uniform across TBS, TNT and truTV.
If you’re away from your television, the March Madness mobile and tablet apps will have all of the feeds as will the Watch TBS, Watch TNT and Watch truTV apps, but those apps will just have the dedicated feed from that individual channel, not the additional ones.
It’s definitely a new world for viewers used to seeing CBS carry the entire Final Four and Championship Game, but in 2017 and in subsequent odd years until 2023, it will revert back to network television.
As Paulsen at Sports Media Watch explains, if CBS hadn’t courted Turner as a partner on the NCAA tournament, ESPN might have taken the entire kit and caboodle starting in 2010.
It will take some time getting used to, but we’ll find the events when they begin.
