CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sees Boost From NCAA Tournament Lead-In

Cowell’s Appearance On CBS’ “60 Minutes” Receives Heavy Promotion During Games

Sunday’s episode of CBS’ “60 Minutes” “nearly doubled the size of its audience” over the previous week, and “at last part of the ... ratings surge can be attributed to” the NCAA tournament, according to Don Kaplan of the N.Y. POST. The episode featured “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell and was “heavily promoted during the basketball games” (N.Y. POST, 3/20). CBS’ basketball coverage ran 50 minutes into the show’s time window on the east coast (THE DAILY). During primetime coverage on Saturday, CBS earned a 3.8 overnight in adults 18-49, up 23% from last year’s 3.1 in the comparable window. MEDIALIFE MAGAZINE’s Toni Fitzgerald wrote the “potential for several highly ranked teams to match up this weekend and next ... should provide a further goose” to CBS’ ratings (MEDIALIFE MAGAZINE, 3/19). UNLV-Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon drew the largest TV audience of any sports event last weekend in the Milwaukee market with an 18.6/ (164,238 HHs) on WDJT. Michigan State-Marquette on Thursday night had a 12.6/ (111,258 HHs) (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/20).

COMPLAINT BOX: CBS announced all remaining tournament games will air in HD to all regions. In Pittsburgh, Bob Smizik notes Pitt-Wright State on Thursday and Pitt-VCU on Saturday were advertised as being in HD, but the Pittsburgh market “received a standard definition feed.” CBS Sports Senior VP/Programming Mike Aresco, noting Pitt’s games were designated as “constants,” said, “Right now, technology is such that ‘constants’ do not receive high definition.” Smizik notes that even though Pitt was designated as a “constant,” CBS “did leave the game several times for brief periods in the second half” (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 3/20)....In Las Vegas, Bill Taaffe notes CBS did not begin coverage of UNLV-Wisconsin on Sunday until the score was 11-4 because the preceding Tennessee-Virginia game “ran long and the games are too tightly scheduled by CBS. And before getting to UNLV, CBS ran at least one network promo, a commercial and a local station availability before picking up coverage” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/20).

Writer Feels Packer Does Not See Game's Entertainment Value

TALENT REVIEWS: On Long Island, Neil Best writes CBS’ Gus Johnson was “screaming so loudly” during coverage on Saturday that CBS “should have yanked away his microphone and just flung open the doors” of the arena. As “often happens when Johnson is excited, it was not clear precisely what he said after” Ohio State tied Xavier with two seconds left in regulation. Johnson and analyst Dan Bonner “would have been better off conserving energy to discuss pertinent stuff such as whether Ohio State’s Greg Oden should have been called for an intentional foul in the final seconds” (NEWSDAY, 3/20). While his piece was written before the tournament started, ESPN THE MAGAZINE’s Bill Simmons believes CBS analyst Billy Packer has an “ongoing reluctance to crack jokes or entertain viewers in any way.” Packer “understands the sport as well as anyone” and is “always impeccably prepared,” but he “doesn’t grasp [the game’s] entertainment value” (ESPN THE MAGAZINE, 3/16 issue).

TOO MUCH, TOO FAST? See David Letterman’s “Top Ten Signs You've Been Watching Too Much College Basketball.”