March Madness! NCAA Basketball Tourney Gets Best Ratings Since 1998

There's a reason they call it "March Madness": the NCAA men's basketball tournament drew in the largest audience for the first Sunday of the tourney in 17 years, averaging a 7.3 household rating over the four networks that featured games. The push in viewership gave CBS a ratings win for Sunday, as the network pulled in 10.9 million viewers between 7pm and 11pm, beating ABC's 6.9 million, NBC's 6.3 million, and FOX's 4.4 million.

Why was this year's first Sunday such a success? Perhaps, after the dramatic buzzer-beaters early Sunday afternoon with Washington vs. UNC and Michigan vs. Duke, viewers were hoping to catch some more late-game drama.

Maybe it was the fact that dark horses VCU, Marquette, and Florida State were all vying to upset 2 and 3-seed teams (and all of them did).

Or, maybe it was the TruTV bump.

The reality show-based network picked up some March Madness coverage this year, offering yet another outlet for viewers to watch their favorite games. With CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV all covering games, there are no longer any games going without proper TV coverage, and you don't have stations changing to cover other games in the middle of their own coverage.

Coverage continues this week. Be sure to check out the 2011 March Madness page here on Yidio so you don't miss any of the action!