Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEven without an undefeated team, the NCAA men's basketball tournament's title game has earned its highest preliminary television rating in 18 years.
Duke University's 68-63 comeback win over Wisconsin in Indianapolis on Monday night on CBS-TV drew a 17.1 overnight rating and 27 share. CBS and Turner Sports said Tuesday that was the best result since an 18.0/28 in 1997 when Arizona upset defending champion Kentucky in overtime. It was up 33 percent from the 12.9/21 for Connecticut's win over the Kentucky last year.
Ratings represent the percentage of U.S. homes with televisions tuned to a program, while shares represent the percentage of TVs in use at the time. Overnights measure the country's largest markets.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.