All involved in college basketball hope this season marks a return to normal, though it may take awhile in the ratings.
Tuesday’s Champions Classic college basketball doubleheader averaged 1.65 million viewers on ESPN, down 11% from last year — when the event took place a month later than usual with the two games split between different, fanless sites (1.86M) — and down 30% from 2019 (2.35M). Since hitting 2.82 million in 2017, viewership for the Champions Classic has declined in four-straight years.
In particular, Duke-Kentucky averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.78 million viewers — up a tick in ratings and 1% in viewership from Kansas-Kentucky last year (1.0, 1.77M) but down 23% and 22% respectively from Michigan State-Kentucky in ’19 (1.45, 2.27M). Compared to the last Champions Classic meeting between Duke and Kentucky in ’18, which featured Zion Williamson, ratings fell 35% (from 1.7) and viewership 37% (from 2.85M).
The Blue Devils’ win posted the third-smallest audience in the ten-year history of the Champions Classic, ahead of only Kansas-Kentucky last year and the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader.
Kansas-Michigan State averaged a Champions Classic record-low 0.9 and 1.52 million, down 22% in ratings and 23% in viewership from Michigan State-Duke last year (1.15, 1.96M) and 43% and 37% respectively from Duke-Kansas in 2019 (1.6, 2.42M). Compared to the last Champions Classic meeting of Michigan State and Kansas in ’18, ratings fell 27% (from 1.2) and viewership 24% (from 2.00M).
Neither game averaged as many viewers as the College Football Playoff Rankings Show that aired in-between (1.2, 2.14M). Keep in mind that is not an unusual occurrence and that it is far easier to sustain a rating over 24 minutes than over 130 plus.
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 11.10]
