A thrilling chapter of the Tobacco Road rivalry delivered in the ratings.
Saturday’s Duke-North Carolina men’s college basketball game averaged a 1.6 rating and 3.51 million viewers on ESPN, marking the rivals’ highest rated and most-watched regular season meeting since Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game in March 2022 (1.95, 3.98M). It was also the most-watched regular season men’s game on the ESPN networks since 2022.
Take out that 2022 meeting and one would have to go back to the Zion Williamson season of 2018-19 to find the last time Duke-North Carolina averaged a larger regular season audience. (As goes without saying, their meeting in the 2022 Men’s Final Four towers above all others.)
Keep in mind that Nielsen’s methodological changes of the past year — specifically its expansion of out-of-home viewing and shift to a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes — generally skew comparisions to past years.
The Tar Heels’ buzzer-beating win, which peaked with 4.8 million viewers, ranks third for the college basketball season behind only the two NFL-adjacent games on Thanksgiving Day — Duke-Arkansas on CBS following Chiefs-Cowboys (2.4, 6.81M) and Michigan State-North Carolina on FOX following Packers-Lions (2.1, 6.50M).
It was the day’s top non-Olympic sporting event, comfortably topping the Warriors-Lakers “NBA Saturday Primetime” game on ABC later in the night (1.4, 2.47M).
Ratings increased 49% and viewership 53% from the rivals’ first meeting of last season (1.1, 2.29M).
The Tennessee-Kentucky lead-out drew a 0.9 and 1.79 million — down from John Calipari’s return to Kentucky with Arkansas last season (1.0, 1.94M) — in a window that also included Illinois-Michigan State on FOX at a 0.9 and 1.9 million.
Shifting to the women’s game, Sunday’s Tennessee-South Carolina game on ABC averaged a 0.8 and 1.46 million — the largest audience of the season. The Gamecocks’ blowout win had the benefit of a direct lead-in from a Knicks-Celtics NBA game (1.4, 2.46M) and actually outdrew the competing Clippers-Timberwolves on ESPN (1.03M).
