Scoreboard for Fri, March 28, 2008
Total Viewers (million)	8.84	8.71	5.37	5.03	4.05
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	3.1/10	2.6/8	1.7/5	1.3/4	1.2/4

There’s not a whole lot to say about Friday night’s action, but I’ll say it anyway.  CBS won the night, squeaking by NBC in total viewers and a slightly more comfortable margin in the 18-49 demo.

NCAA basketball primetime round two coverage has been, well, kinda eh.  9.75 million on Thursday night followed by 8.84 million on last night.  Can CBS really be getting $1.4 million for 30 second spot for these numbers?  I don’t see it.  Adding insult to injury, a two hour NBC’s Dateline outperformed the games averaging over 10.5 million viewers and a healthy 3.2/10 (rating/share) in the 18-49 demo.

In the last half hour, Dateline had almost 13 million viewers and a 4.1/12 in the demo!  Sure, Dateline averaged more than 4 million more viewers than a two-hour installment of ABC’s 20/20, but it also averaged 4 million viewers than it had for a two-hour installment last Friday night.   What was the subject matter?  If anyone who watched would drop me a line [robert  (at) tvbythenumbers.com, I'd appreciate it].  Update: thanks to Jeff  in West Chester, Pa. for filling me in, the Dateline was about  a gripping case of “Mistaken Identity“.

Bad news for fans of Canterbury’s Law (and Julianna Margulies), the move to Friday’s at 9pm didn’t fare so well, drawing only 4.87 million viewers and a 1.2/4 in the demo.  Making matters worse, that’s worse than a repeat of Bones at 8pm which drew 5.18 million and a 1.4/5.

Friday night’s details:

Sorry HH Ratings fan, there are no HH Ratings in the table above today, but you can check them out at Zap2it.

Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Full night’s results available via Marc Berman/Mediaweek. HH Ratings Data via Zap2it