• by Wayne Friedman , April 9, 2013

The big "NCAA Men's Basketball Championship" game between Louisville and Michigan has gained better overall viewing results versus a year ago, per preliminary Nielsen results.

The game, which gave Louisville the title, took in a Nielsen 14.3 household rating/23 share, up 18% from a year ago. Overall, the nearly month-long NCAA Tournament had a 7.2 household rating/15 share among CBS Sports and Turner Sports network programming -- a 9% improvement over a year ago.

The tournament's TV results of an average 7.2 rating /15 share tied the results of 2011 as the highest overall average for the NCAA Tournament in eight years.

Looking at key demographics, the game earned a preliminary 7.5 rating/19 share among 18-49 viewers -- the same as last year's preliminary rating results. This is down two-tenths of a rating point versus a year ago final Nielsen rating results. Overall viewership was at 20.7 million for the championship game, which ran from 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST.

While CBS won the night overall, with a 5.5/14 among 18-49 viewers, NBC still proved a strong competitor with its two big shows, "The Voice" and "Revolution." The singing competition show at 8 p.m. earned a 4.9/13, up from a 4.7 rating the week before; "Revolution" was at a 2.3/6 at 10 p.m. -- up from a 2.2 rating.

Apart from NBC, most other networks put their programming into reruns. One exception was ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," which scored a 2.0/5 in 18-49 and 13 million overall viewers. Its 18-49 rating was down from the 2.2 rating of the week before.

After CBS, NBC was in second place overall on the night with a 4.0/11 among 18-49 viewers; ABC earned a 1.8/5, followed by Fox with a 1.6/4, Univision at a 1.6/4, and CW with a 0.3/1.

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