With hype so high that it merited a presidential cameo, Duke-UNC ratings soared despite an early injury to the game’s biggest star.
Wednesday’s North Carolina-Duke men’s college basketball game drew a 2.7 rating and 4.34 million viewers on ESPN, up 80% in ratings and 79% in viewership from the teams’ first meeting last year, which aired opposite the Olympics (1.5, 2.43M), and up 50% and 41% respectively from the first meeting in 2017 (1.8, 3.08M).
The Tar Heels’ blowout win, which saw Duke F Zion Williamson leave in the opening minutes due to injury, ranks as the highest rated and most-watched regular season college basketball game on any network in five years — since Duke-Syracuse on ESPN in 2014 (2.9, 4.75M).
It also scored the largest audience for a UNC-Duke game since March 2011 (4.61M) and tied the highest rating since March 2009 (2.9).
For ESPN, it was the most-watched weeknight men’s college basketball game in network history. Regardless of day, it ranks fifth behind UNC-Duke in ’11, Duke-Syracuse in ’14, Tennessee-Memphis in 2008 (5.28M), and UNC-Duke that same year (5.61M).
Keep in mind some Women’s NCAA Tournament games have had a larger audience, though none since 2004 (UConn-Tennessee: 5.58M).
As goes without saying, UNC-Duke was the most-watched game of the college basketball season. Duke has now played in the top three, four of the top six, and eight of the top 13.
Compared to other sports, it outdrew every regular season NBA game on cable since January 2018 (Warriors-Cavaliers: 4.68M). It also topped all-but-three regular season college football games on cable last season. Oklahoma-West Virginia had 5.63 million on Black Friday, Virginia Tech-FSU 5.58 million on Labor Day, and Clemson-Texas A&M 4.49 million last September.
For the night, the game was television’s top program in adults 18-34 (1.7) and ranked second in adults 18-49 (1.7). It trailed only the FOX reality show “The Masked Singer” in the latter demo (2.7).
In Wednesday’s early window, Louisville-Syracuse had 1.21 million — up 6% from the comparable night last year (UNC-Louisville: 1.21M), but down a third from 2017 (Duke-Syracuse: 1.81M).
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 2.21, ESPN PR 2.22, Programming Insider 2.22]
