TV Ratings: NCAA Basketball Championship Surges With Duke Victory

April 07, 2015 1 hour ago by Michael O'Connell

Preliminary ratings have the game up nearly 25 percent from 2014.

The NCAA Men's Basketball tournament wrapped a record-setting ratings streak on an especially strong note on Monday night. Though the final numbers of who tuned into see Duke defeat Wisconsin will change with time zone adjustments, preliminary ratings  for the CBS game are nearly 25 percent improved from last year.

Following early 18-year highs set by metered markets, Fast National returns have the championship game averaging a 7.2 rating among adults 18-49 and 22.6 million viewers between 9 and 11 p.m. Stats for the full game, as well as time zone considerations, will be available later on Tuesday.

The competition did dampen typical Monday leader The Voice (2.9 adults), off three-tenths of a point from last Monday. The Night Shift (1.4 adults) still managed to grow on NBC, up two-tenths of a point. On ABC, Dancing With the Stars (2.0 adults) was also steady.

Fox's The Following logged a series low in same-day showings, falling two-tenths of a point to just a 0.9 rating in the key demo. And, on the CW, both The Originals (0.5 adults) and Jane the Virgin (0.4 adults) held steady.
 TV Ratings