March Madness fans certainly feel for Kate Middleton, who revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. They are more concerned with having to see the somber news on the Princess of Wales during an NCAA tournament game.
CBS offered the update during Northwestern's thrilling overtime win against Florida Atlantic. And it actually came during a commercial break, so it's not like viewers missed any of the game.
Nonetheless, the timing of the update quickly came into question on social media. The special report on Middleton lasted nearly two minutes.
As the New York Post relayed:
"Special Report? Do not interrupt my March Madness," one user wrote on X.
Another user added, "We don't interrupt March Madness for this update. We fought a war over this!"
At first, there was a GEICO commercial, before the network cut to Norah O'Donnell in a CBS studio for the report about a video that depicted Middleton announcing that she'd been diagnosed with cancer and started chemotherapy, which CBS then reported began in February.
"The surgery was successful," Middleton said in the video.
"However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present."
As for the actual game, Florida Atlantic seemed to be in control for much of it and seemed to be primed to take the next step toward a second straight surprising run to the Final Four after the Owls did it last season. But then Northwest came to life, systematically chipping away at the lead before basically dominating in OT.
The prize is No. 1-ranked UConn in the second round.
That's the basketball side of things, and clearly, that's all fans wanted to focus on. They made that clear after being force-fed the Middleton news with about 5 minutes left in the game.
"The real March Madness will be the millions of college basketball fans who will go to war with Britain if they ever interrupt the NCAA Tournament again," another viewer wrote on X.
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