Rating for 'Kentucky's coronation' in NCAA Championship Game on CBS delivers 5% increase

CBS Sports and Turner Sports' exclusive coverage of the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship on Monday, April 2, earned an average fast national household rating/share of 12.3/19, up 5 percent from last year's 11.7/18 (Connecticut-Butler).

This year's 12.3/19 is the second-best rating for the National Championship in seven years (2005 - 15.0/23; UNC-Illinois; 2010 - 14.2/23; Duke-Butler).

The National Championship game on CBS averaged 20.9 million viewers (Per 2+), up 4 percent from last year's 20.1 million. This year's 20.9 million was the second-highest viewer average for the championship game in seven years (2005, 2010 - 23.9 million; UNC-Illinois, Duke-Butler).

Championship game coverage peaked in HH rating and average viewers at 13.4/25 with 22.5 million viewers, respectively, from 11:30-11:44 p.m., ET.

Coverage across the four networks of TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averaged a HH rating/share of 6.1/13 compared to last year's 6.4/14 and 2010's 6.0/13 according to Nielsen Fast Nationals. This year's tournament averaged 9.6 million viewers compared to 10.2 million last year and 9.5 million in 2010.