TBS Ready To Debut New-Look NCAA Selection Show

The NCAA Tournament Selection Show for the first time today will be "televised on TBS instead of its longtime home, CBS," beginning at 6:00pm ET. Turner "designed a new studio on its Atlanta campus for the show, which will have a live audience this year." All 68 teams will be "revealed within the first 10 minutes of the two-hour show, eliminating any drama about who is left on the bubble." The full regional brackets "will be shown over the next half-hour" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/11).  

The plan for the show was "not surprisingly" greeted this week with "considerable skepticism." The decision to announce teams separately from matchups "seems like a way to drag out the proceedings through four extra commercial breaks" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 3/9). There has been some "squabbling that the quick revelation of the full field will take away some of the suspense of the show" (STLTODAY.com, 3/10). TBS "promises to reveal the matchups within the first hour" of the show (AJC.com, 3/9).