The most dominant draw in college basketball delivered once again over the weekend.
Friday’s Duke-North Carolina ACC Tournament semifinal delivered a 2.6 rating and 4.15 million viewers on ESPN, up 53% in ratings and 47% in viewership from last year’s semifinal between the teams (1.7, 2.82M) and up 44% and 40% respectively from their meeting in the 2017 semis (1.8, 2.97M).
The following night, the Duke-Florida State ACC Tournament final scored a 2.5 and 4.06 million — up 25% in ratings and 18% in viewership from last year (Virginia-UNC: 2.0, 3.44M) and up 25% and 13% respectively from 2017 (Duke-Notre Dame: 2.0, 3.60M).
Duke’s back-to-back wins delivered the two largest ACC Tournament audiences on record. The previous high was 4.01 million for the 1998 UNC-Duke final.
The games also rank as the third and fourth most-watched college basketball telecasts of the season. Duke played in each of the top four, with their matchups against UNC taking the top three spots. Overall, six of the top seven — and eight of the top thirteen — games this season involved the Blue Devils.
All three Duke-UNC games this season had at least 4.1 million viewers, compared to just one of their previous eight meetings.
Duke-UNC was easily the Friday’s top program in adults 18-49 (1.5), adults 18-34 (1.4), and adults 25-54 (1.6). Duke-FSU took top honors in the same demos Saturday night, scoring a 1.2, 1.0 and 1.4, respectively.
In other ACC Tournament action, Friday’s FSU-Virginia semifinal had a 1.1 and 1.62 million — up 38% in ratings and 21% in viewership from the same window on ESPN last year, Kansas-Kansas State in a Big 12 Tournament semifinal (0.8, 1.34M).
Top college basketball games, 2018-19 season
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 3.19, ESPN PR 3.20]
