The season’s second top-five meeting between Duke and Virginia neared a season-high, behind only their first meeting last month.
Saturday’s Duke-Virginia college basketball game delivered a 2.0 rating and 3.32 million viewers on ESPN, up 100% in ratings and 101% in viewership from last year (Virginia Tech-Virginia: 1.0, 1.65M) and up 150% and 147% respectively from 2017 (FSU-Notre Dame: 0.8, 1.34M).
The Blue Devils’ win delivered the second-highest rating and viewership of the college basketball season, behind the teams’ first meeting last month (2.3, 3.76M).
Duke has played in three of the four most-watched games this season, and seven of the top eleven.
Duke-UVA was Saturday’s top sporting event on any network, and ranked third overall for the weekend. It trailed only a pair of Sunday events, Lakers-Sixers on ABC (2.4, 3.86M) and the PGA Tour on CBS (2.4, 3.73M).
In other college hoops action, CBS drew a 1.25 and 1.91 million for Ohio State-Indiana on Sunday afternoon — up 11% in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year (Michigan-Wisconsin: 1.1, 1.73M), but down 8% in both measures from 2017 (Michigan-Indiana: 1.4, 2.07M).
CBS also drew a 1.0 (+25%) and 1.56 million (+30%) for Kentucky-Mississippi State on Saturday. FOX topped out at a 0.8 (+12%) and 1.23 million (+16%) for Wisconsin-Michigan.
Shifting to the workweek, Virginia-North Carolina drew a 1.05 and 1.69 million on ESPN Monday night — up 57% in ratings and viewership from last year (Notre Dame-UNC: 0.7, 1.08M) and up 11% and 15% respectively from 2017 (Louisville-Syracuse: 0.95, 1.47M).
The Kansas-TCU nightcap had a 0.8 (+77%) and 1.20 million (+83%).
Largest college basketball audiences of 2018-19 season
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 2.12, Programming Insider 2.12]
