When it comes to early season college basketball ratings, a top five matchup involving Duke is as good as it gets.
Last Saturday’s Virginia-Duke college basketball game scored a 2.0 rating and 3.0 million viewers on CBS, marking the second-highest rating and viewership of the season on any network. Michigan State-Ohio State earlier this month holds the top spot (2.1, 3.3M).
CBS has aired three of the season’s top four games, with Northwestern-Indiana on January 14 ranking fourth (1.9, 2.9M).
The Cavaliers’ narrow win was the top college basketball game of the weekend. Ranking second, Kentucky-West Virginia scored a 1.25 and 2.2 million on ESPN Saturday night — down 37% in ratings and 33% in viewership from last year (2.0, 3.3M) and down 32% and 25% respectively from 2016 (1.8, 3.0M). Both of those games pit Kentucky against Kansas.
Rounding out the top five, N.C. State-North Carolina had a 1.25 (+32%) and 1.9 million (+28%) on CBS Saturday, Michigan State-Maryland a 1.1 (-3%) and 1.7 million (-12%) on CBS Sunday, and Purdue-Indiana a 0.9 (+34%) and 1.4 million (+35%) on FOX Sunday.
Shifting to the workweek, ESPN drew a 0.9 (+50%) and 1.4 million (+57%) for Kansas-Kansas State and a 0.85 (-22%) and 1.3 million (-24%) for Notre Dame-Duke on Big Monday. UNC-Clemson drew a 0.7 (+20%) and 1.1 million (+24%) and Vanderbilt-Kentucky a 0.6 (-43%) and 956,000 (-41%) on Super Tuesday.
[Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 1.30, Programming Insider 1.30, 1.31]
