ESPN Averages 3 Million Viewers for Duke-UNC

The Duke Blue Devils defeated the rival North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday in a matchup that finished as the second most-watched college basketball game of the season. This presentation of the ACC tilt on ESPN averaged 3 million viewers, according to data reported by Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, which is down by 3.2% from the second meeting between these teams last season. Yet the game is up from the first time these two teams faced off in the season, which averaged 2.3 million viewers this past February. The broadcast team for the matchup consisted of play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman, analyst Jay Bilas and reporter Jess Simms.

The only college basketball game this season to surpass the second meeting between Duke and UNC was a Thanksgiving Day matchup between Illinois and Arkansas that averaged 5.17 million viewers on CBS.

Preceding the matchup though, CBS presented an NFL game between the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears that averaged 37.5 million viewers on CBS, marking a record for the early time slot on the holiday.

ESPN also presented a game between Alabama and Auburn earlier in the day that averaged 2.1 million viewers, which is a 110% year-over-year improvement from the comparable game. Although the first matchup between both teams averaged 700,000 more viewers, this iteration ranks within the ten most-watched college basketball games in the season. The broadcast team for the game included play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech with analysts Jimmy Dykes and Dick Vitale. Duke and Alabama are included in seven of the top 10 most-viewed games of the year.

ESPN networks have now presented seven college basketball games this season that have averaged more than 2 million viewers, which Lewis reports as being the most for any network since 2019. Earlier in the year, ESPN exercised its option to televise ACC sports through 2036 and thus complete its 20-year contract it inked in 2016. The company also reached an eight-year agreement with the NCAA last year that grants it domestic rights to 40 NCAA championships and international rights to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.

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