• by Wayne Friedman , April 9, 2008

After starting out with lower viewer numbers versus a year ago for the NCAA tournament, CBS picked up the pace for its championship game.

A dramatic overtime title game--with Kansas coming from behind to beat Memphis for the national title--pulled CBS to a 12.1 rating/20 share in household ratings, virtually the same number the game had a year before when it clocked in with a 12.2/20.

For the night, CBS had the highest-rated 18-49 show with the NCAA College Basketball Tournament game--a 7.3/19. Factoring in early-evening comedy reruns of "Big Bang Theory" and "Two and Half Men," CBS worked up a 5.2/14 for the night, tops among all networks.

The second-biggest show of the night was ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," which churned out a respectable 4.9/13 for the night--down slightly versus its numbers a week ago. Since "Stars" started at 8 p.m., its hour-and-a-half episode, it stayed mostly out of basketball's way with viewers, as the game started at 9 p.m.

Taking the biggest visible hit was the return of ABC's high-rated freshman "Samantha Who?" the half-hour comedy that could only muster a 3.4/8 on the night. "Samantha" had been earning high 4 ratings in its debut weeks last fall. ABC's other female-oriented show, "The Bachelor: London Calling," at 10 p.m., sank to a 2.5/6. ABC finished the night in second place with a 3.9/10.

NBC went with an all-original episode night with "My Dad is Better Than Your Dad," "Deal or No Deal" and "Medium." But it did little for the network, only averaging a 2.6/7 for the night and coming in at third place.

Fox was next, averaging a 2.4/6, which included a 2.6/7 for a repeat of "House" and a 2.2/5 for an original "New Amsterdam."

CW and MyNetworkTV were at the bottom--CW with a 0.5/1 for "Gossip Girl" and "One Tree Hill" repeats, and MNTV with a 0.3/1 for a repeat of "Celebrity Expose" and an original "Paradise Hotel 2."