Broadcast primetime live + same-day ratings for Saturday, March 23, 2019
The numbers for Saturday:
| Time | Show | Adults 18-49 rating/share | Viewers (millions) |
| 8 p.m. | 2019 NCAA Basketball Tournament (CBS) (7:30-10 p.m.) | 1.6/9 | 6.15 |
| American Idol (ABC) (8-10 p.m.) – R | 0.3/2 | 2.10 | |
| World Figure Skating Championship (NBC) (8-10 p.m.) | 0.2/1 | 1.83 | |
| MasterChef (FOX) – R | 0.2/1 | 0.94 | |
| 9 p.m. | 9-1-1 (FOX) – R | 0.2/1 | 1.15 |
| 10 p.m. | 48 Hours (CBS) | 0.7/4 | 3.68 |
| 20/20 (ABC) – R | 0.4/2 | 2.78 | |
| Saturday Night Live (NBC) – R | 0.4/2 | 2.20 |
It was a fairly quiet night across the board for the Saturday primetime broadcast ratings.
The sole exception to that, of course, was the NCAA Basketball Tournament on CBS. Starting at 7:30 p.m., the Minnesota Golden Gophers played the Michigan State Spartans to score a strong 1.6 rating in adults 18-49. This was a particularly helpful lead-in for “48 Hours,” which found itself at 0.7 after a few weeks at 0.4.
NBC aired the “World Figure Skating Championships” from Saitama, Japan, to pick up a 0.2 average across its two-hour broadcast. This was followed by a 2017 episode of “Saturday Night Live” hosted by Melissa McCarthy at 0.4, down 0.2 from last week’s rerun.
The rest of the night consisted of reruns, as well. On ABC, “American Idol” picked up a 0.3, with “20/20” at 0.4. The lowest-rated broadcasts of the night went to FOX’s re-airings of episodes of “MasterChef” and “9-1-1,” both of which grabbed a pair of 0.2’s.
Network averages:
| CBS | ABC | NBC | FOX | |
| Adults 18-49 rating/share | 1.3/7 | 0.4/2 | 0.3/2 | 0.2/1 |
| Total Viewers (millions) | 4.92 | 2.44 | 2.02 | 1.05 |
Definitions:
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.
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings are available at approximately 11 a.m. ET the day after telecast. 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.
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.
Time Shifted Viewing: Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live +Same-Day and Live +7 Day. Time-shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs. Live+SD includes viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3 a.m. local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live +7 ratings include viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
Source: The Nielsen Company.
