An NCAA men's basketball tournament of "buzzer-beaters,
upsets and feel-good stories" has helped CBS to its highest
ratings for the event in four years, according to the
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Through Sunday's regional finals, CBS's
NCAA men's coverage averaged a 6.2/13, 1% higher than last
year's 6.1/14 and the "best since" '94's 6.6/15. Three of
last weekend's games "posted gains" from the previous year.
Saturday's UConn-UNC game earned an 8.2, up 9% from '97,
while Sunday's Stanford-URI received a 6.4, up 5%, and Duke-
Kentucky recorded a 9.9, up 11%. The Duke-Kentucky game was
the "highest rated regional final since" Michigan-Arkansas
got a 10.1 in '94 (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 3/24). In Dallas,
Richard Alm notes that, due to the viewer demos for the
tournament, CBS "isn't complaining about the" $213M rights
fee it is paying for '98. The average tourney watchers have
incomes 30% higher than the national average, and 70% own
their own homes. Also, 40% of the audience are women, "high
for sports events." CBS Sports VP/Programming Mike Aresco:
"Young, college-educated men are a very hard to reach
demographic segment. And this, by far, is the best vehicle
to reach them" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 3/24).
CBS NOTES: In N.Y., Bob Raissman calls CBS's production
on Duke-KY "first-rate," and adds "so was the call of Jim
Nantz and Billy Packer" (N.Y DAILY NEWS, 3/24). Also in
N.Y., Richard Sandomir writes on Packer: "If the full
measure of an analyst is whether a viewer learns something
... Packer gets high marks" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/24). But in
Boston, Howard Manly writes that the presence of ex-coaches
Al McGuire and Dean Smith in the net's lineup "may be good
for name recognition but lousy for insightful analysis.
Neither criticizes his coaching brethren" (BOSTON GLOBE,
3/24). Former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley will join CBS on
this weekend's coverage of the men's Final Four (CBS).
