Due to the nature of live programming the ratings for CBS (NCAA Basketball) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49 Rating/Share | 3.3/11 | 1.7/6 | 0.8/3 | 0.5/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 9.60 | 5.08 | 2.95 | 2.29 |
College basketball dominated the night, pushing regular Saturday night kingpin Fox to second place. The basketball numbers were down when compared to last year's final numbers (3.8) but the preliminary numbers are so subject to change that it's difficult to do any meaningful comparisons to last year's finals and last year's finals were measuring the evening game blocks rather than primetime specifically.
If there's another upset or two today, I'm sure you'll see lots of stories floating around the interwebs on whether the upsets are ultimately good for the ratings. Even if there aren't any more upsets today you'll probably see some of those stories...
Details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Shr | Viewers (Millions) |
| 8:00 | CBS | NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament | 3.5/13 | 10.09 |
| FOX | Cops (Original and repeat) | 1.6/6 | 4.92 | |
| NBC | Parenthood (R) | 0.5/2 | 2.37 | |
| ABC | Flash Forward (8p-10p) | 0.4/2 | 1.76 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament | 3.4/12 | 9.59 |
| FOX | America's Most Wanted | 1.7/6 | 5.24 | |
| NBC | Law & Order (R) | 0.7/2 | 4.24 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | NCAA Men's Basketball/48 Hours Mystery | 3.1/10 | 9.14 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU (R) | 1.1/4 | 5.25 | |
| ABC | Castle (R) | 0.7/2 | 3.34 |
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You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2010 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. Source: Marc Berman/Mediaweek.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101 and Numbers 102.
First comment! low flashforward just a 0.4!
You guys should do a statistical analysis on whether upsets are good for ratings. My guess is that it depends on what teams get upset and when. My feeling is that there is going to be high interest in the double digit seed that makes it to the elite 8, and that's good for ratings, But a lot of first 2 round upsets that eliminate popular teams like Duke or Syracuse is bad for ratings.
i just saw a promo for Sons of Tucson tonight… fox referred to it as a smash hit…. way to spin it folks.
I'm trying not to focus on my Jayhawks loss last night
davey, I agree the results of that analysis would be interesting, but (1) we don't get anywhere near the amount of data to be able to do it, (2) even if we did, it would be *way* too much work!
Castle repeat bested the FlashForward ones by 75%.
Let's what happens next week with V repeats.
WOW look at that Parenthood repeat! Just a tad ahead of FF.
First comment! low flashforward just a 0.4!
You guys should do a statistical analysis on whether upsets are good for ratings. My guess is that it depends on what teams get upset and when. My feeling is that there is going to be high interest in the double digit seed that makes it to the elite 8, and that's good for ratings, But a lot of first 2 round upsets that eliminate popular teams like Duke or Syracuse is bad for ratings.
i just saw a promo for Sons of Tucson tonight… fox referred to it as a smash hit…. way to spin it folks.
I'm trying not to focus on my Jayhawks loss last night
davey, I agree the results of that analysis would be interesting, but (1) we don't get anywhere near the amount of data to be able to do it, (2) even if we did, it would be *way* too much work!
Castle repeat bested the FlashForward ones by 75%.
Let's what happens next week with V repeats.
WOW look at that Parenthood repeat! Just a tad ahead of FF.