Primetime Ratings: CBS Rolls With March Madness Final

CBS won the Monday ratings race, the NCAA basketball final leading the network to a 3.6 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 15 share. In a distant second was NBC at 1.0/5.

On CBS, a Big Bang Theory repeat started off prime and the March Madness pre-game show followed at 2.0. The final featured Texas Tech and Virginia in an overtime thriller. Starting at 9, the game did a 4.4.

Last year’s final was on cable. The 2017 final, North Carolina versus Gonzaga, did a 5.6.

On NBC, The Voice fell 20% to 1.2 from 8 to 10 and The Enemy Within dropped 13% to 0.7.

ABC did a 0.9/4. American Idol did a 1.1 from 8 to 10 and The Fix got a 0.5, both shows flat.

Fox got a 0.5/2 with repeats of The Resident and 9-1-1.

Telemundo and Univision both got a 0.4/2.

The CW did a 0.2/1. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow got a level 0.3 and an Arrow rerun closed out CW prime. 

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.