Monday night's National Championship Game was a blowout for most of the way, but more people still tuned in than last year.
The Kentucky versus Kansas matchup registered a 12.3 rating on CBS, according to Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily. It outdid last year's tilt between Connecticut and Butler, which came in at 11.7.
Kentucky defeated Kansas by eight points, and the game only became close in the last few minutes. The Wildcats led by double digits from the 7:18 mark in the first half up until the 4:17 mark of the second half.
Some people thought this would hurt the game's viewership, but the contest did surprisingly well.
The title game averaged 20.9 million viewers, which was approximately 800,000 more than last season, and the second best since North Carolina defeated Illinois for the championship in 2005.
Last night's game was seen by more people than last year's contest, but the tournament as a whole didn't do as well. CBS and Turner averaged a 6.1 rating from the start of the field of 68, which was fiver percent less than last year.
2011 was the first year in which 68 teams made the tournament, and four "play-in" games were held on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the first weekend of games.
