Saturday’s matchup between rivals Duke and North Carolina earned college basketball’s best regular season overnight in nearly two years.
North Carolina’s win over Duke drew a 3.2 overnight rating on CBS Saturday night, up 88% from the same matchup in a later timeslot last year (UNC/DUKE: 1.7, ESPN).
The 3.2 overnight is the highest for a regular season college basketball game since Duke/North Carolina in March 2009 (3.4), which aired on CBS on a Sunday afternoon.
Duke/North Carolina helped CBS to a second-place finish in total viewers and adults 18-49 in primetime (8-11 PM) Saturday night, behind FOX.
Excluding the NFL, Saturday’s game was the 24th regular season sporting event to air in primetime on broadcast television over the past year. Of those 24 (six NASCAR races, fourteen college football games, two Major League Baseball games, and one NHL game), Duke/North Carolina ranks 17th in overnights.
(CBS Sports; TV By the Numbers)
