- CBS (CBS +0.5%) ruled the ratings roost again last week, with a big assist again from March Madness.
- The NCAA basketball tournament helped push the network to an average of 9.7M prime-time viewers, well ahead of second-place NBC (CMCSA +0.6%) with 5.3M. Trailing those two were ABC (DIS -0.1%), with 4.4M on average, Fox (FOX -1.1%, FOXA -1.2%) with 2.7M and Univision (Pending:UVN) with 1.5M.
- Basketball made up the top two individual programs (Oregon vs. North Carolina drew 18.83M viewers, while the network's studio show drew 16.03M), but other CBS hits made their mark: NCIS at No. 3 with 14.35M, The Big Bang Theory at No. 4 with 12.78M; The ACM Awards at No. 7 with 10.91M and Bull at No. 8 with 10.9M.
- Cracking the top 10 from other networks: The Walking Dead (AMCX +1.8%), No. 5 with 11.31M; Dancing with the Stars (NYSE:DIS), No. 6 with 11.12M; and a pair of showings of The Voice (NASDAQ:CMCSA) at 9 and 10 with 10.56M and 10.22M respectively.
- Fox News ruled cable prime-time again, averaging 2.27M viewers, against MSNBC's 1.69M, ESPN's 1.61M, USA Network's 1.55M and HGTV's (SNI +1%) 1.48M.
Original article