Even with Duke dominating all the college basketball headlines, Kentucky remains a strong ratings draw.
Last Saturday’s Tennessee-Kentucky men’s college basketball game scored a 1.75 rating and 3.01 million viewers on ESPN, up 161% in ratings and 150% in viewership from last year (UNC-Louisville: 0.7, 1.20M) and up 79% and 85% respectively from 2017 (UVA-UNC: 1.0, 1.63M).
The Wildcats’ win delivered the third-largest college basketball audience of the season, trailing only the two Duke-Virginia games. Kentucky has now played in four of the top seven games this season — more than Duke, which has played in three.
As one would expect, Tennessee-Kentucky was no match for the competing NBA All-Star Saturday Night festivities on TNT (2.7, 5.02M).
Earlier in the day, NC State-Duke drew a 1.2 (+28%) and 1.86 million (+13%), ranking second for the weekend among college basketball games.
Shifting to the broadcast networks, CBS scored a 1.2 (flat) and 1.73 million (-12%) for Ohio State-Michigan State Sunday afternoon, and a 0.5 (-17%) and 771,000 (-19%) for Oklahoma State-Texas on Saturday. FOX topped out at a 0.8 and 1.09 million for Maryland-Michigan, up 105% in ratings and up 119% in viewership from the same window last year (Providence-Butler: 0.37, 500K).
Iowa-Rutgers, which ended on a game winning three at the buzzer, had a 0.27 and 439,000 on FS1.
Largest 2018-19 college basketball audiences thus far
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 2.20]
