The overnight ratings this morning certainly didn’t give CBS any encouragement as they showed Monday night’s Kansas-Kentucky game down from last year’s contest. However, now with the Fast National Rating counted and the average viewership measured, CBS/Turner comes out on top from last year. According to Nielsen, the Fast National Rating for Kansas-Kentucky resulted in a 12.3 rating and a 19 share compared to last year’s 11.7/18 for UConn-Butler.
In addition, an average viewership of 20.9 million people watched last night compared with 20.1 million for UConn-Butler. That’s 4% higher than 2011 and gives CBS/Turner an average fast national rating of 6.1/13 compared to last year’s average of 6.3/14. But this year’s average is still better than 2010, the last year CBS carried the NCAA Tournament solo. This year’s viewership is also down compared to 2011.
Overall, CBS has to happy seeing the Final Four and the Championship Game finishing better than last year.
RATING FOR “KENTUCKY’S CORONATION” IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME ON CBS DELIVERS 5% INCREASE FROM 2011
CBS Sports and Turner Sports’ exclusive coverage of the 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship on Monday, April 2 earned an average fast national household rating/share of 12.3/19, up 5% from last year’s 11.7/18 (Connecticut-Butler).
This year’s 12.3/19 is the second-best rating for the National Championship in seven years (2005 – 15.0/23; UNC-Illinois; 2010 – 14.2/23; Duke-Butler).
The National Championship game on CBS averaged 20.9 million viewers (Per 2+), up 4% from last year’s 20.1 million. This year’s 20.9 million was the second-highest viewer average for the Championship game in seven years (2005, 2010 – 23.9 million; UNC-Illinois, Duke-Butler).
Championship game coverage peaked in HH rating and average viewers at 13.4/25 with 22.5 million viewers, respectively, from 11:30-11:44 PM, ET.
Coverage across the four networks of TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averaged a HH rating/share of 6.1/13 compared to last year’s 6.4/14 and 2010’s 6.0/13 according to Nielsen Fast Nationals. This year’s tournament averaged 9.6 million viewers compared to 10.2 million last year and 9.5 million in 2010.
That is all for now.
