Even with the Blue Devils’ middling ranking, the Duke-North Carolina rivalry showed once again why it is college basketball’s most reliable television draw.
Duke-UNC scored a 2.6 overnight on ESPN Saturday night, up 24% from the rivals’ second meeting last year, which aired in an earlier timeslot (2.1), and tied with 2015 as the highest for the matchup since 2012 (3.1). Going back further, the 2.6 is tied as the fourth-highest for Duke-UNC on the ESPN family of networks since at least 2003.
The Tar Heels’ win, which peaked with a 3.3 from 10:15-10:30 PM ET, delivered the highest college basketball overnight of the season on any network. The previous high was a 2.4 for Kentucky-North Carolina on CBS in December.
Head-to-head, Saturday’s game comfortably topped a strong-performing Premier Boxing Champions telecast on CBS (2.2) and doubled the competing Clippers-Bulls NBA game on ABC (1.3).
Raleigh-Durham led all markets with a 19.5 rating, followed by Greensboro N.C. (15.1), Charlotte (10.7), Louisville (7.8) and Greenville S.C. (7.6).
(Numbers from ESPN)
