Kentucky lifted CBS to its top college football audience of the season last weekend.
The Arkansas/Kentucky college basketball game drew a 1.9 final rating and 2.9 million viewers on CBS last Saturday, the network’s most-watched game of the season. The previous high, according to Sports Business Daily, was 2.8 million for North Carolina/Kentucky in December.
Overall, Saturday’s audience ranks as the fifth-largest of the season on any network — trailing only North Carolina/Duke (4.1M), Kentucky/Louisville (3.5M), Duke/Virginia (3.5M) and Kentucky/Florida (3.3M), all on the ESPN family of networks. Tuesday’s Kentucky/Georgia game ranks sixth (2.8M).
Arkansas/Kentucky earned the third-highest rating and viewership of any sporting event last weekend, trailing only NASCAR on FOX (5.6, 9.5M) and a Cavaliers/Rockets NBA game on ABC (2.8, 4.3M).
Earlier in the day, North Carolina/Miami drew a 1.1 and 1.5 million, and Georgetown/St. John’s a mere 0.7 and 884,000. On Sunday, CBS drew a 0.8 and 1.2 million for SMU/Connecticut and a 1.3 and 2.0 million for Michigan State/Wisconsin.
Ratings and viewership for last year’s comparable games were not available.
(Wknd. numbers via Sports Business Daily)
