• by Wayne Friedman , April 7, 2017

With eight weeks left to go for the TV season, NBC maintains its lead among the broadcast networks in key viewing measures -- even with last week’s surge from CBS.

In the most recent week ending April 2, CBS -- with its highly rated NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament -- soared well above other broadcasters, nearly doubling other key viewing metrics of other networks.

CBS was at a Nielsen 1.9 rating/7 share among 18-49 viewers and 9.66 million overall viewers two years and older. The network pulled in a big 5.5 18-49 rating and 18.8 million overall viewers for the Final Four semifinal Saturday game between Oregon-North Carolina.

For the week, NBC was at a 1.0/4 in 18-49 and 5.31 million in viewers 2+; ABC, 0.9/4 in 18-49 (4.42 million viewers); Fox, 0.8/3 (2.65 million); Univision, 0.5/2 (1.51 million); The CW, 0.5/2 (1.39 million); and Telemundo, 0.5/2 (1.35 million). Ratings for the current week are Nielsen-live program-plus-same day time-shifted ratings.

However, for the season, NBC is still solidly in front among key advertisers' 18-49 viewers with a 2.2/8, followed by Fox at a 2.0/7; CBS, 1.9/7; ABC, 1.7/6; The CW and Univision, each with a 0.7/2; and Telemundo, a 0.6/2.

The total viewers' race has CBS solidly on top with 9.91 million.

NBC is next at 8.51 million, followed by Fox with 6.43 million; ABC, 6.32 million; Univision, 1.86 million; The CW, 1.82 million; and Telemundo, 1.60 million.

Season-to-date ratings are a combination of live-program-plus-seven days of time-shifted ratings and live-plus-same day time-shifted ratings.