NCAA basketball boosts CBS to first on Friday

March Madness boosted CBS to first place on Friday night.

The network averaged a 1.5 overnight rating and 6 share among viewers 18-49 with its coverage of first-round NCAA Tournament action on Friday, according to Nielsen, good for first place.

As always with live programming, overnight ratings reflect only timeslot data, not actual program data. They do not account for time zone differences.

Still, the games helped CBS jump 36 percent versus the previous Friday, when it averaged a 1.1 overnight rating.

ABC was second for the night among 18-49s with a 1.0 rating and a 4 share. The network had the night’s No. 2 program, the news special “Truth and Lies: The Family Manson,” which posted a 1.1 rating.

The two-hour special produced ABC’s largest audience in the timeslot since January.

ABC also claimed the night’s most-watched program, “Last Man Standing,” which averaged 6.2 million viewers at 8 p.m.

NBC was third for the night among 18-49s at 0.8/3. Fox was fourth at 0.4/2 and CW fifth at 0.3/1.

ABC takes the night in households

Among households, ABC led the night with a 3.6 average overnight rating and a 7 share. NBC was second at 3.0/6, CBS third at 2.9/6, Fox fourth at 1.3/2 and CW fifth at 0.6/1.

Tags: abc, cbs, family manson, friday overnights, March Madness, ncaa tournament, overnight ratings, overnights