March Madness Provides Ratings Assist for 60 Minutes

By A.J. Katz 

March Madness brought a significant number of eyeballs to CBS this weekend, and 60 Minutes was a beneficiary of the strong lead in. The March 20 edition of the long-running news program hauled in strong numbers for the Eye, drawing over 10.2 million total live+same day viewers. It was the sixth-most-watched primetime telecast for the week ending March 20.

This was the 11th time over the past 13 original broadcasts, and the 16th time during the current broadcast season that 60 Minutes ranked among primetime TV’s top 10 broadcasts of the week (average total viewers).

60 Minutes also finished in the weekly top 10 in households, earning a 6.4 live+same day rating (#6 overall).

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Sunday’s edition featured Lesley Stahl’s profile of Argentine President Mauricio Macri, a James Brown interview of civil rights activist Cornel West and Scott Pelley’s report on St. Benedict’s Prep, an inner-city school where 85 percent of  graduates get college degrees.

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