CBS Sports and Turner Sports’ exclusive coverage of the 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship on Monday, April 2 earned an average fast national household rating/share of 12.3/19, up 5% from last year’s 11.7/18 (Connecticut-Butler). 

           This year’s 12.3/19 is the second-best rating for the National Championship in seven years (2005 - 15.0/23; UNC-Illinois; 2010 - 14.2/23; Duke-Butler).

          The National Championship game on CBS averaged 20.9 million viewers (Per 2+), up 4% from last year’s 20.1 million.  This year’s 20.9 million was the second-highest viewer average for the Championship game in seven years (2005, 2010 – 23.9 million; UNC-Illinois, Duke-Butler).

          Championship game coverage peaked in HH rating and average viewers at 13.4/25 with 22.5 million viewers, respectively, from 11:30-11:44 PM, ET.

          Coverage across the four networks of TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averaged a HH rating/share of 6.1/13 compared to last year’s 6.4/14 and 2010’s 6.0/13 according to Nielsen Fast Nationals.  This year’s tournament averaged 9.6 million viewers compared to 10.2 million last year and 9.5 million in 2010.

# # #

CONTACTS:

Dan Sabreen                           CBS Sports                 212-975-5936              dsabreen@cbs.com

Nate Smeltz                            Turner Sports              404-827-4786              nate.smeltz@turner.com