Primetime Ratings: CBS Wins With March Madness Lead-In

CBS won Sunday honors in primetime, riding a husky March Madness lead-in to a 1.5 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 6 share. That beat the 1.1/5 that ABC had with three hours of American Idol.

After a Duke-Michigan State barnburner, 60 Minutes did a 3.0 on CBS, down 14% from last Sunday’s March Madness-boosted score. God Friended Me was a flat 1.2. NCIS: Los Angeles went up 11% to 1.0 and Madam Secretary was a level 0.7.

On ABC, America’s Funniest Home Videos did a flat 0.9 and three hours of American Idol from Hawaii a 1.3, 1.2 and 1.1. That averaged out to the same 1.2 Idol did last week.

Fox was at 0.7/3. Comedy reruns aired alongside a fresh Simpsons at 0.8 and Family Guy at 0.9, both animated comedies flat.

NBC did a 0.6/3 with an Ellen’s Game of Games rerun, then two hours of World of Dance at 0.7 before Good Girls got a 0.5. Both shows were down a tenth.

Univision did a 0.5/2 and Telemundo a 0.4/2.

The CW rated a 0.2/1. Supergirl did a 0.3 and Charmed a 0.2, both dramas flat. 

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.