Airing on ESPN2 due to the college football bowl season, the Kentucky/Louisville rivalry still pulled in solid numbers.
The Kentucky/Louisville college basketball game drew a 2.1 overnight rating on ESPN2 Saturday afternoon, the network’s highest ever for a college game. The 2.1 overnight matched last year’s game between the rivals, which aired on broadcast network CBS in a later timeslot.
Though Kentucky/Louisville was a battle of top five rivals featuring two of the best-known coaches in the game, it aired on ESPN2 to accommodate college football bowls on CBS and ESPN. Head-to-head, the Wildcats’ win was topped by the Sun Bowl on CBS (2.6), but edged the Military Bowl on ESPN (2.0).
To put the numbers in perspective, ESPN2’s top NBA overnight was a 2.7 for Game 2 of a Blazers/Spurs playoff series earlier this year. That game aired opposite the first round of the NFL Draft.
(Sat. numbers via twitter.com/espnpr)
