The NCAA Championship game powered CBS to a ratings win on Monday night despite the fact the game was down more than 6 percent compared to last year’s match-up. The game — which saw the U Conn Huskies defeat the Butler Bulldogs — averaged a 13.3 household rating, according to Nielsen. Last year’s game, which also featured a Bulldogs defeat, pulled in a 14.2 household rating.
For primetime, CBS averaged a 5.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 14.3 million viewers overall. Though those ratings are preliminary and likely to change, CBS Sports’ coverage of the game – which began at 9 p.m. – should keep the network in first place in the demo.
ABC was second for the night with a 4.0 demo rating and actually pulled in more viewers between 8-11 p.m. with 18.1 million. A two-hour Dancing with the Stars performance show (in which Maksim Chmerkovskiy dropped Kirstie Alley) averaged a 4.6 rating with 21.4 million viewers overall for a 12 percent decline week-to-week. ABC’s 10 p.m. drama Castle (2.9, 11.6 million) was also down week-to-week due to tough competition from the game.
Univision (1.6. 4.0 million) was a distant third for the night with telenovelas Eva Luna, Teresa and Triunfo del Amor, followed by Fox with reruns of House and The Chicago Code.
NBC’s Monday night lineup continues to founder. The network averaged a 1.1 rating with 4.5 million viewers with a rerun of Chuck (0.6, 2.4 million) and new episodes of The Event (1.2, 3.9 million) and Harry’s Law (1.3, 7.4 million). The Event was flat week-to-week while Harry’s Law was down 19 percent for a series low.
