With North Carolina under .500, the Tobacco Road rivalry was not as strong a draw as usual.
Saturday’s Duke-UNC men’s college basketball game averaged 2.67 million viewers on ESPN, topping only their February 2018 meeting (2.43M) as the least-watched edition of the rivalry since February 2014 (2.29M). Coverage faced the Winter Olympics in both years. Ratings were not immediately available.
Overall, the game ranks 21st out of the rivals’ past 29 matchups (dating back to 2008).
The Blue Devils’ overtime win, which peaked with 4.11 million from 8:45-9 PM ET, declined 38% from the teams’ first meeting last season, which featured Zion Williamson (4.34M).
Compared to last year’s Williamson-boosted numbers, Duke games have not been as strong a draw this season. By the same point of last season, three Duke game had already averaged more viewers than on Saturday — and the first UNC game was still more than a week away.
Despite the lower numbers, Saturday’s game delivered the largest audience of the college basketball season. The previous high was 2.42 million for Duke-Kansas in the Champions Classic.
The game was not the top sporting event of the day, trailing the XFL season opener on ABC (Seattle-DC: 3.30M). Figures for other Saturday sporting events were not immediately available.
[Nielsen estimates from ESPN PR/Twitter 2.10]
