March Madness helps CBS win the week

Competition programming reigned last week in prime time, from basketball to singing and dancing, plus other assorted reality fare.

The NCAA men’s tournament rewarded CBS with bursts of March Madness in the form of robust Nielsen ratings. Those championship games, along with such shows as “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” helped CBS win the week overall, the Nielsen Co. said Tuesday.

Also giving CBS a boost was its new reality hit, “Undercover Boss,” which ranked fourth for the week with 16.7 million viewers.

Fox had the week’s top-rated show, the Tuesday edition of “American Idol,” which drew 24.21 million viewers, while the season premiere of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” was only slightly behind, averaging 24.18 million viewers, the most for a season premiere in its 10-season history.

The detective drama “Castle,” which followed, averaged 12.21 million viewers, the largest audience in its two seasons as ABC had its most-watched Monday night since Jan. 1, 2001, when it aired the Rose Bowl game between Purdue and Washington.

“Castle,” which stars Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, was renewed Tuesday for another season.

ABC’s other highlights of the week included “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” drawing more viewers for its second episode than its first. The unscripted series about Oliver’s quest for residents of Huntington, W.Va., to eat healthier averaged 7.47 million viewers for its first episode in its regular 9-10 p.m. Friday time slot, finishing second in the time slot and 31st for the week.

All five games of CBS’ prime-time coverage of the second week of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament drew more viewers than the similar games last year.

The most-watched game was Saturday’s prime-time coverage of the West Virginia’s 73-66 victory over Kentucky in the East Regional final, 11th for the week with 12.05 million viewers.