Good game, good ratings, even in Los Angeles

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Monday night’s NCAA men’s college basketball national championship game won by Duke over underdog Butler was a hit nationally and locally.

In Los Angeles it earned an 11.7 rating and 19 share which is up 65% from 2009 and is the best the game has done here since UCLA played Florida in the 2006 game. The total number of viewers here -- 963,000 -- was also the largest since the 2006 game. And in that most coveted demographic, men between the ages of 25 to 54, the local share of 28 was up 102% from a year ago.

Nationally 48.1 million saw some or all of the game on CBS according to Nielsen Media Research, an increase of 17% over last year’s championship game between North Carolina and Michigan State. That 48 million is the most since 50 million saw Arizona and Kentucky in 1997. CBS’s coverage of the entire three weeks of March Madness was up five percent over last year with 134.3 million having watched some part of the tournament. That’s the most sine 141.7 tuned in during the 2005 event.

-- Diane Pucin