CBS wins the week with basketball and hit series

NEW YORK (AP) - Hoops and series hits have handed CBS another winning week, the Nielsen ratings company said.

Not only did CBS win in total prime-time viewers for a sixth straight week, but it also won for a fourth consecutive week in the adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 demographics.

CBS had 15 of the top 20 shows, led by the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game between UConn and Kentucky, which drew 21.2 million viewers.

In second place was the network’s “NCIS,” with 17.4 million viewers, followed by its hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” with 16.3 million.

Overall in prime time, CBS won the week handily with an average 9.95 million viewers, leaving ABC behind with 6.20 million, followed by NBC with 5.40 million and Fox with 4.94 million. Univision had 2.73 million, Telemundo had 1.18 million, the CW had 1.01 million and ION Television had 1.04 million.

USA was the week’s most-watched cable network in prime time, averaging 2.12 million viewers. Second-place Disney Channel had 1.75 million, and History had 1.70 million.

NBC’s “Nightly News” maintained its leadership among evening newscasts with an average of 8.2 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” was runner-up with 7.4 million, and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.4 million viewers.

For the week of April 7-13, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NCAA Basketball Championship: Kentucky vs. UConn, CBS, 21.20 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 17.39 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 16.29 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 14.56 million; “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 14.47 million; NCAA Basketball Championship: Pregame, CBS, 12.02 million; “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 11.97 million; “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 11.09 million; “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 11.05 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.99 million.

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ABC and Disney Channel are owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is owned by 21st Century Fox. NBC, USA and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. History is owned by A+E Networks.

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Online:

https://www.nielsen.com