Carolina Blue away record.
That record did not stand for very long.
Just two weeks after Tennessee/Memphis became the most watched college basketball game in ESPN history, North Carolina/Duke shattered that mark on Saturday night.
The battle between the two storied rivals drew 5.6 million viewers on Saturday, the most viewers for a regular season college basketball game in over a decade. Tennessee/Memphis drew 5.2 million viewers last month.
The game drew a 4.0 cable rating, the highest rated college basketball game on ESPN in 15 years. The huge numbers for UNC/Duke and Tennessee/Memphis have helped ESPN to an 11% jump in television ratings for college basketball games this season.
UNC/Duke will stand as the second most watched sporting event of the weekend, behind only the Kobalt Tools 500 on FOX.
Highest rated college basketball games on ESPN this season.
All ratings are coverage area ratings.
4.0: UNC/Duke (3/8/08, 9 PM ESPN)
3.8: Tennessee/Memphis (2/23/08, 9 PM ESPN)
2.1: Duke/UNC (2/6/08, 9 PM ESPN)
2 comments:
Wow that's good to see and shows how great of a job ESPN is doing with their College Basketball coverage. They basically made the regular season as relevant and important as College Football's regular season which I never thought I would see.
There's a reason that UNC-Duke broke a record: This was a rare case where the ACC network (Raycom) didn't show the game in the ACC region (which forces an ESPN blackout), where ratings are going to be the highest. Ratings for the first game still were high, but the record is because ACC region viewers also watched the second game on ESPN.
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