Primetime Ratings: March Madness Rules For CBS

ABC's 'FlashForward' hits series low

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/19/2010 12:17:20 PM

March Madness ruled last night, giving CBS the win in every half hour among total viewers and the 18-49 demographic.

CBS finished the night with 10.3 million total viewers with a 3.7 rating/11 share from 8-11 p.m., according to Nielsen. Healthy tune-in for NBC comedies -- Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, 30 Rock -- propelled NBC to second for the night (6.5 million viewers, 2.7 rating), followed by ABC (5.7 million viewers, 1.6 rating), Fox (5.3 million viewers, 1.4 rating) and The CW (1.4 million viewers, .6 rating).

The double episode return of FlashForward was an all-time low for the freshman ABC series. The 8 p.m. episode had 6.6 million viewers with a 1.9 rating, while the 9 p.m. episode had 6.4 million viewers with 1.9 rating. That gave ABC third in the demo for both hours behind the NCAA on CBS and comedies on NBC.

At 10 p.m., NBC's The Marriage Ref was actually up slightly week-to-week, with 7.5 million viewers and a 2.8 rating for second in the time slot behind basketball and a rerun of ABC's Private Practice (4.2 million viewers, 1.1 rating).