NCAA Tournament Ratings Jump From First Friday, ‘Hart Of Dixie’ Finale Even

We may be in the thick of March Madness but it sure felt a bit like summer last night – and I’m not just talking about the weather in L.A. With the 2015 NCAA Tournament determining its Elite Eight on Friday, repeats and movies were scattered over the primetime schedule last night.

However, let’s get to the college basketball first and full points to Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski who lead his team to a 74-62 victory over UCLA in the first of the NCAA Tourney games CBS had on in prime last night. The Bulldogs center was on fire with a career-topping game that saw him snag 18 points alone. Duke was up next in the winner’s camp with a 63-57 defeat of Utah as the second primetime game of the night. All of which gave CBS a 1.9/7 rating among adults 18-49 and 6.40 million total viewers. That’s a 58% jump in the demo in fast nationals over the first Friday of the 2015 tournament when Robert Morris lost to Duke and St. John’s fell to San Diego State. Viewershipwise, last night’s games beat out the March 20 match-ups by 67% as the tournament has now firmly separated the contenders from the players, if you know what I mean. CBS took the top spots for the less competative than usual night with a 1.9/7 rating and 6.402 million total viewers

Fast nationals comparisons to the second Friday of the 2014 NCAA Tournament are a bit hard to make as Southern California was partially rocked by first a 3.6 and then shortly afterwards a 5.1 magnitude earthquake on March 28 last year. With that occurring around 9 PM PT as Kentucky were up against Louisville in the second primetime game of that night, local news cut in to report on the shaking, shuttering and aftershocks that hit the region. All of which saw fast nationals that night for the NCAA Tournament up to 3.1/10. So, fast nationals to fast nationals, last night’s 8 – 11 PM NCAA games were down 38% from the comparable night the year before, but the earth stood still so to speak. The NCAA Tournament being live sports, last night’s numbers are sure to be adjusted later too.

And, BTW, while it wasn’t on CBS primetime last night, that Michigan State 62-58 free-throw line determined win over Oklahoma was a game to see. With that, enough NCAA for now – at least as you get ready for today’s games.

HART OF DIXIE
HART OF DIXIE

Over on The CW, there were weddings, dancing and some water breaking as Hart Of Dixie (0.4/2) ended it fourth and seemingly final season. Compared to last week, the show was even among the 18-49s. Finale-to-finale with the 9 PM Season 3 ender of May 16 last year, last night’s 8 PM HoD was also even among the demo. Viewershipwise, the 1.37 million who watched last night’s show was a strong rise of 55% from the Season 3 finale’s total audience.

With Glee done last week, Fox went for airing the 2010 Adam Sandler-led pic Grown-Ups last night. ABC went for a double shot of Cristela at 8 and 8:30 PM. Both airings of the freshman comedy drew a 0.8/3, which was even with the show’s 8:30 PM broadcast last week. After a Shark Tank repeat, the network had 20/20 (1.1/4) at 10 PM. The news mag was also even with last week. NBC’s only original of the night was Grimm (1.0/4), which slipped 9% from last week to a series low in preliminary numbers.

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