The shocking upset by the Saint Peter’s Peacocks over Kentucky in the first round of Thursday night’s NCAA Tournament on CBS helped the eye to a ratings win.
Coverage of the first round of the basketball championship actually kicked off before primetime, at 7 p.m. ET, but it brought in a 1.35 in the demo and 5.456 million viewers. As the tourney continued on the network, they had a 1.05 at 9:48 p.m. ET, and 4.1 million viewers, and 0.83 in the 18-49 demo with 3 million viewers at 10:08 p.m.
CBS may have had an early start, but they maintained a demo above 1 until almost 10 p.m., and even after that, it stayed close to 1 for an overall win.
NBC was second in ratings, earning 0.56 in the demo at 8 for “Law and Order,” with 4.6 million viewers. “SVU” brought the network a higher demo number — 0.65 — and 4.7 million viewers. Things dipped, however, for the Christopher Meloni-starring “Organized Crime,” which earned a 0.54 in the demo and 3.435 million viewers.
ABC was third on Thursday night, with its first two hours made up of Shondaland shows — “Station 19” at 8 (0.54 in the demo, 4.2 million viewers) and “Grey’s Anatomy” (0.51 in the demo, 3.6 million viewers). “Big Sky” at 10 p.m. halved ABC’s demo reach to 0.25. It was seen by 2.4 million viewers.
The premiere of “MasterChef Junior” on Fox brought in 0.39 and with 2 million viewers, landed the network fourth in ratings for the night. “Call Me Kat” at 9 p.m., starring Mayim Bialik, dipped slightly to 0.36 and 1.948 million viewers, with a steeper drop for the premiere of the new comedy “Welcome to Flatch,” with 0.20 in the demo and just over a million in ratings.
A repeat of the Jared Padalecki-starring “Walker” on The CW earned a 0.08 in the demo and 476,000 viewers, while a repeat of “Legacies” at 9 p.m. earned 0.03 and 243,000.