Though down double-digits from last year, Saturday’s clash between Duke and Virginia scored a near season-high for ESPN.
The Duke/Virginia college basketball game drew 3.5 million viewers on ESPN Saturday night, down 27% from Duke/Syracuse last year (4.7M) but up 101% from Kentucky/Texas A&M in 2012 (1.7M). Keep in mind last year’s game earned the third-largest college basketball audience ever on ESPN.
Despite the decline, the Blue Devils’ win earned the second-largest audience of the season on the ESPN family of networks — narrowly trailing Kentucky/Louisville on ESPN2 in December (3.495M to 3.489M).
ESPN also earned strong numbers earlier in the day. North Carolina/Louisville drew 2.6 million late Saturday afternoon, up 37% from Kansas/Texas last year (1.9M), up 208% from Tennessee/Arkansas in 2013 (854K), and the fourth-largest audience on the ESPN networks.
(Sat. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
