NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Here's a safe bet: Two men's basketball games featuring St. Peter's University landed among the 20 most-watched television programs in prime time last week for the first time ever.
The NCAA tournament's underdog darlings hit the big time with their victories over Kentucky and Murray State, the Nielsen company said.
Fans are obviously intrigued by their story, since the Jersey City school's second game against Murray State had more viewers than the game with Kentucky, one of the NCAA's blue bloods.
The CBS newsmagazine 鈥�60 Minutes鈥� has a winning streak that has now reached four straight weeks as the most popular program.
The opening round of the men's NCAA tourney led CBS to a dominant win in the ratings, as the network averaged 5.5 million viewers in prime time. ABC had 3.2 million, NBC had 3.1 million, Fox had 2 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 930,000.
Fox News Channel was the most popular cable network, averaging 2.54 million viewers in prime time. TBS had 1.79 million, TNT had 1.63 million, Tru TV had 1.12 million and HGTV had 1.09 million.
ABC's 鈥淲orld News Tonight鈥� won the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.9 million viewers. The 鈥淣BC Nightly News鈥� had 6.7 million and the 鈥淐BS Evening News鈥� had 5.3 million.
For the week of March 14-20, the 20 most-watched programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. 鈥�60 Minutes,鈥� CBS, 9.07 million.
2. 鈥淣CIS,鈥� CBS, 7.55 million.
3. 鈥淭he Equalizer,鈥� CBS, 7.08 million.
4. 鈥淣CAA Basketball Pregame鈥� (Saturday), CBS, 6.79 million.
5. NCAA Basketball Tournament: St. Peter's vs. Murray St., CBS, 6.69 million.
6. 鈥淐hicago Fire,鈥� NBC, 6.66 million.
7. 鈥淐hicago Med,鈥� NBC, 6.35 million.
8. 鈥淭he Neighborhood,鈥� CBS, 5.8 million.
9. 鈥淏ob Hearts Abishola,鈥� CBS, 5.71 million.
10. 鈥淣CIS: Los Angeles,鈥� CBS, 5.6 million.
11. NCAA Basketball Tournament: St. Peter's vs. Kentucky, CBS, 5.46 million.
12. 鈥淎merican Idol,鈥� ABC, 5.4 million.
13. 鈥淐hicago PD,鈥� NBC, 5.33 million.
14. 鈥淣CIS: Hawai'i,鈥� CBS, 5.1 million.
15. 鈥淪urvivor,鈥� CBS, 5.06 million.
16. NCAA Basketball Tournament: Davidson vs. Michigan St., CBS, 4.96 million.
17. 鈥淭he Bachelor,鈥� ABC, 4.73 million.
18. 鈥淟aw & Order: SVU,鈥� NBC, 4.72 million.
19. 鈥淔BI,鈥� CBS, 4.65 million.
20. 鈥�911: Lone Star,鈥� Fox, 4.64 million.
David Bauder, The Associated Press
