NCAA Hoops on CBS Can’t Stop ABC’s Ratings Win

CBS’ coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament boosted the network’s audience among male viewers but drew modest ratings overall, allowing ABC to score a weekly ratings victory, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

The networks continue to roll out midseason replacements, with ABC’s Denis Leary sitcom “The Job” putting up respectable numbers, while Fox’s “The Lone Gunmen”--following a Sunday launch in “The X-Files’ ” slot--misfired on Friday night, losing more than 30% of its lead-in audience from “Police Videos.”

“Survivor” exhibited no ill effects from its temporary shift to Wednesday to make room for the NCAA basketball tournament, but viewers declined to take a bite out of CBS’ new crime drama series

“Big Apple,” which proved no match for NBC’s “The West Wing.” In fact, more than two-thirds of the “Survivor” audience looked elsewhere at 9 p.m., with roughly 10 million viewers switching to NBC.

ABC’s “Gideon’s Crossing,” starring Andre Braugher, benefited from a crossover story line with “The Practice,” delivering the show’s highest rating since its October premiere. In similar fashion, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” drew its biggest audience in seven weeks with “Survivor” vacating its Thursday slot.

XFL football hit a new ratings low against NCAA basketball Saturday on NBC, whose weekly average was also dragged down by the little-seen miniseries “The Lost Empire.”

Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

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Last Season week to date ABC 12.22 million 12.94 CBS 11.25 12.59 NBC 9.95 11.95 FOX 8.60 9.92 UPN 3.36 3.86 WB 3.22 3.88

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