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TV ratings: CBS wins with NCAA basketball final; ‘Voice’ flat

Connecticut guard Shabazz Napier passes around Kentucky's Dakari Johnson during the NCAA college basketball championship game.
Connecticut guard Shabazz Napier passes around Kentucky’s Dakari Johnson during the NCAA college basketball championship game.
(Chris Steppig / Associated Press)
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CBS dunked over its rival networks in the ratings Monday night with the NCAA men’s basketball championship.

Early numbers for live sports are not adjusted for time zones and can be unreliable, but it appears the face-off between Kentucky and Connecticut was a predictably big draw for CBS, bringing in an average of 17.8-million viewers. Though that’s down 14% from the preliminary numbers for last year’s NCAA men’s basketball final, it was comfortably the night’s most-watched telecast.

Up against college sports, NBC’s “The Voice” held steady week-to-week among key 18-to-49-year-olds, scoring a rating of 3.4 in the advertiser-coveted demographic. That makes “The Voice” the night’s top non-sports show in that measure. The new home-renovation reality show “American Dream Builders” performed much better after the “Voice” than it did Sunday, but was still down sharply from its lead-in. “Dream Builders” notched a 1.6 in 18-to-49, in which a ratings point equals roughly 1.3-million viewers.

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ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” declined 9% from last week to a 2.1 in the key demographic. Its 13.7-million viewers made it Monday’s second-most-watched telecast overall. “Castle” was a rerun.

On Fox, “Bones” rose 7% from last week to a 1.6 in 18-to-49, followed by the Kevin Bacon thriller series “The Following,” which held even with last week’s 1.4.

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ryan.faughnder@latimes.com

Twitter: @rfaughnder

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