AFTERNOON UPDATE: The NCAA FINALS adjusted up to 7.2 in final numbers, but that was still significantly down from last year’s 8.4. What time zone adjustment giveth it also taketh away, and that BIG BANG THEORY rerun at 8PM looked a lot less impressive when reduced to 2.0, while the game’s PRE-GAME SHOW fell to 1.6. Other adjustments were smaller: on ABC, DANCING WITH THE STARS was up 0.1 and the CASTLE rerun rose 0.2; on NBC, THE VOICE was up 0.1 but AMERICAN DREAM BUILDERS was down 0.1; BONES went up 0.1 on FOX (but THE FOLLOWING didn’t).
MONDAY CABLE: The basketball game didn’t trouble WWE (USA), which was impressively at 1.8-1.9 over its 3 hours compared to 1.4-1.6 last week. On VH1, BASKETBALL WIVES was up 0.1 to 1.2, but the rest of the line-up fell: BLACK INK CREW to 1.0 (down 0.2), TI & TINY to 0.9 (down 0.3), and THIS IS HOT 97 all the way to 0.5 (down 0.3). BATES MOTEL (A&E) justified its Season 3 renewal by climbing 0.1 to 1.0. DALLAS (TNT) and ARCHER (FX) were both at 0.5, which put them up and down 0.1 respectively. REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS (Bravo) dropped again, by 0.1 to 0.6.
College basketball’s big night.
CBS: The NCAA TOURNAMENT FINALS won the night handily, but without any marquee teams in the game, its preliminary 6.0 rating in 18-49s was down 1.5 from the unadjusted number for last year’s game. The PRE-GAME SHOW was at 2.1, and THE BIG BANG THEORY demonstrated once again its crazy strength in reruns, with a 3.0 at 8PM that beat everything against it except The Voice.
NBC: Thinking of which, THE VOICE held even with last week’s 3.4 season low. With that tremendous lead-in, AMERICAN DREAM BUILDERS did far better than it has on Sundays (although nowhere near The Blacklist‘s typical numbers) with 1.6.
FOX: BONES was up 0.1 to 1.5, but THE FOLLOWING just matched last week’s series low 1.4.
ABC: DANCING WITH THE STARS fell 0.3 to a season low 2.1, followed by 1.3 for a CASTLE rerun.
CW: A new STAR-CROSSED slipped 0.1 to 0.3, not much better than the 0.2 for the TOMORROW PEOPLE rerun that followed.
Tonight is probably the last chance for ABC’s AGENTS OF SHIELD to make a big splash before its fate is decided, with a storyline that will reflect (and hope to capitalize on) the events of the blockbuster Captain America 2. All the networks are new 8-10PM except CW. On cable, JUSTIFIED airs its Season 4 finale.
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