Even without an undefeated team, the NCAA men's basketball tournament's title game has earned its highest preliminary television rating in 18 years.
Duke University's 68-63 comeback win over Wisconsin in Indianapolis on Monday night on CBS-TV drew a 17.1 overnight rating and 27 share. CBS and Turner Sports said Tuesday that was the best result since an 18.0/28 in 1997 when Arizona upset defending champion Kentucky in overtime. It was up 33 percent from the 12.9/21 for Connecticut's win over the Kentucky last year.
Ratings represent the percentage of U.S. homes with televisions tuned to a program, while shares represent the percentage of TVs in use at the time. Overnights measure the country's largest markets.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.