• by Wayne Friedman , March 26, 2012

NCAA’s March Madness had to share the madness with the premiere of “Mad Men” on Sunday night.

CBS squeaked through with a win on Sunday -- highlight with the “NCAA College Men’s Basketball Tournament,"  the “Elite Eight” games. Though mostly airing in the afternoon, the tournament moved into early evening hours,  earning a Nielsen preliminary 2.9/9 for the 7 p.m. hour -- the best rated show of the night.

Overall, CBS scored a Nielsen preliminary 2.3 rating/6 share among 18-49ers to ABC’s 2.2/6.

CBS pulled in an average 10.2 million on that  night -- and 12 million for the early evening hour of the NCAA game, coupled with some of  “60 Minutes” programming. By way of comparison, the season five debut of AMC’s “Mad Men” pulled in a record – for the show -- 3.5 million viewers.

After this, the best-rated scripted Sunday show was ABC’s rookie favorite “Once Upon a Time,” which took in a 2.8/8. This was down from a 2.9 the week before. Between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., the combination of CBS’  “60 Minutes”/”The Amazing Race”, took in a 2.6/7.

A new episode of “Desperate Housewives” -- winding its way towards its series finale -- got a 2.6/7, the same numbers as a week before.

Better news for ABC: new midseason show “GCB” grew 10% to a 2.2/6 versus the week before. This beat CBS’ “Good Wife”/”CSI: Miami” effort’s 2.0/5 and NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” with 1.8/5

Fox was in reruns most of the night, save “The Cleveland Show” and “Bob’s Burgers." It took in an overall 1.7/5

NBC continued to lag on Sunday, in its post-“Sunday Night Football” hangover. The two-hour “Celebrity Apprentice” at 9 p.m. earned a lowish, 1.8/5, good for fourth place in the 9 p.m. hour and third place in the 10 p.m. hour. For the night, NBC averaged a 1.4/4.

Univision was next and last with a 1.0/3 among 18-4ers, and some 2.9 million overall viewers.