CBS averaged a 12.3 fast-national Nielsen rating and 20.9 million viewers for Kentucky’s 67-59 win over Kansas in last night’s NCAA men’s basketball national championship game, the second-best figures for the game since North Carolina-Illinois earned a 15.0 rating and 23.9 million viewers in ’05. Last night’s game is up 5.1% and 4.0%, respectively, from an 11.7 rating and 20.1 million viewers for UConn-Butler last year. For the entire all telecasts across CBS/TBS/TNT/truTV, the ’12 tournament averaged a 6.1 rating, down 5% from last year, which was the first year of the combined CBS/Turner effort. However, the 6.1 rating is up 2% from ’10, when CBS aired the tournament. The 6.1 rating also marks the second-best rating for the tournament since ’07 (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
| NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
GAME TREND ON CBS |
| YEAR | RAT. | VIEWERS (000) | MATCHUP |
| '12 | 12.3 | 20,900 | Kentucky-Kansas |
| '11 | 11.7 | 20,100 | UConn-Butler |
| '10 | 14.2 | 23,944 | Duke-Butler |
| '09 | 10.8 | 17,649 | North Carolina-Michigan State |
| '08 | 12.1 | 19,501 | Kansas-Memphis |
| '07 | 12.2 | 19,563 | Florida-Ohio State |
| '06 | 11.2 | 17,543 | Florida-UCLA |
| '05 | 15.0 | 23,895 | North Carolina-Illinois |
| '04 | 11.0 | 17,088 | UConn-Georgia Tech |
| '03 | 12.7 | 18,573 | Syracuse-Kansas |
