For the second time in three weeks, the Duke/North Carolina rivalry generated the season’s highest college basketball overnight.
The Duke/North Carolina college basketball game drew a 2.6 overnight rating on ESPN Saturday night, up 13% from the rivals’ second meeting last year (2.3), up 30% from their second meeting in 2013 (2.0), and the highest overnight of the season on any network.
The previous high was a 2.4, set by North Carolina/Duke in February and UNLV/Kansas* on CBS in January. The latter had a direct lead-in from an NFL playoff game.
The Blue Devils’ win tied the weekend’s second-highest overnight for a sporting event, matching final round coverage of the PGA Tour at Doral and trailing only NASCAR on FOX (4.3). It edged competing coverage of the Premier Boxing Champions series on NBC (2.5), though the boxing telecast came out head during the period when the events overlapped.
* ShowBuzz Daily reported that UNLV/Kansas had a 2.4 overnight, but Sports Business Daily reported that the game had a 2.5. ESPN is claiming that the 2.4 for the first UNC/Duke meeting is the second-highest of the season, which would support UNLV/Kansas having earned a 2.4.
(Sat. numbers via ESPN, twitter.com/jksports)
