Ratings Roundup: CBS, Turner Tourney Coverage Tips Off with Solid Ratings on truTV

On Tuesday, the inaugural year of CBS and Turner Sports’ NCAA Tournament combo coverage tipped off with the opening two games of the First Four on truTV. The network’s coverage delivered a combined audience of 2.6 million total viewers and a 1.7 U.S. HH rating for the first two games of the tournament, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals. Game No. 1 featured UNC Asheville vs. Arkansas-Little Rock (6:30 p.m. – 9:24 p.m. ET) and delivered a 0.8 U.S. HH rating and 1,200,000 total viewers, while Game No. 2 featured Clemson vs. UAB (9:45 p.m. – 12:02 a.m. ET) and delivered a 0.9 U.S. HH rating and 1,354,000 total viewers. Last year’s opening round tournament game featuring Winthrop vs. Arkansas Pine-Bluff delivered a 0.8 U.S. HH rating and 1,053,000 total viewers…

…The NBC Sports Group, which counts both NBC and Golf Channel under its programming umbrella, continues to post solid ratings, as the opening round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship on March 10 was the most-watched first-round (1.14 million viewers) in the history of the Doral event, and the Thursday-Friday average viewership (1.07 million viewers) was the best since 2002 (1.09 million viewers on USA). Additionally, the final-round viewership (2.32 million viewers) on Sunday for “Golf Channel on NBC” rose 16 percent from last year (2.86 million viewers)…

…ESPN Films’ The Fab Five earned a 2.1 rating on Sunday night, making it ESPN’s highest rated documentary to date.  The two-hour review of the famed University of Michigan basketball team of the early 1990s topped two of the “30 for 30” films which each posted a 1.8 rating:  Pony Exce$$ (Dec. 11, 2010) and The U (Dec. 12, 2009). The Fab Five was seen by an average of 2,088,000 households and 2,746,000 viewers, topping both categories among ESPN documentaries.  Pony Excess had been seen by an average of 1,843,000 homes and 2,517,000 viewers, the previous ESPN high marks for documentaries.

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