Despite sinking from last year, the Duke/North Carolina rivalry scored a season-high audience.
Saturday’s North Carolina/Duke college basketball game scored a 1.9 final rating and 3.2 million viewers on ESPN, down 27% in ratings and 25% in viewership from the rivals’ second meeting last season (2.6, 4.2M) and down 10% and 9%, respectively, from their second matchup in 2014 (2.1, 3.5M).
The Tar Heels’ win ranks as the most-watched college game of the season on any network, topping the previous high of 3.1 million for Kentucky/Duke in November’s Champions Classic. Including the season’s first Duke/UNC matchup, the Blue Devils have played in three of the four most-watched games.
Though a strong draw, Duke/UNC was less of one this year. Both of this year’s games had double-digit declines, with the first down 31% in ratings and viewership. Contributing to the dip was the stronger-than-usual performance of last year’s games, the fourth and fifth-most watched editions of the rivalry ever on the ESPN family of networks.
Another likely contributor, at least on Saturday, was the earlier start time — 6:30 PM ET, rather than the 9 PM starts of previous years. Compared to Virginia/Louisville in the same early evening window last year, ratings and viewership increased 46% and 45%, respectively, from a 1.3 and 2.2 million.
This year’s Louisville/Virginia game, which aired after UNC/Duke, scored 1.6 million viewers.
(Sat. numbers from ESPN Media Zone, with additional info from Programming Insider/ShowBuzz Daily)
