With the early exits of several of the tournament's top teams, including Georgetown, Villanova, overall No. 1-seeded Kansas and, now, Syracuse, the television ratings for this weekend's Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds could turn sour if either of the two remaining No. 1-seeded schools — Kentucky and Duke — should fall.

So far, the tournament's ratings haven't been bad. Saturday's games had an overall rating of 6.3 and averaged 10.378 million viewers, according to the Nielsen Co. And despite Kansas' loss Saturday to Northern Iowa, Sunday's numbers were higher — 6.8 and 10.889. The ratings for the Thursday and Friday games last week were comparable.

A breakdown by region — especially from the West Coast, where viewership was expected to be tepid because only Washington and St. Mary's had advanced to the third round — was not immediately available from Nielsen.

To add an edge, the notion that Kentucky, Duke or Syracuse would have an easier time getting to the Final Four with Kansas out of the way was tempered by a report in the Wall Street Journal this week that said, "based on a study of all tournament upsets since 1985, No. 1 seeds don't perform any better than expected when there is bracket chaos. The statistical correlation between the number of upsets and No. 1 seeds is nearly insignificant."

CBS wouldn't mind one Cinderella at the Final Four ball, but too many could spoil the ratings party.