Virginia-Duke is Most-Watched College Basketball Game This Season

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Virginia-Duke is Most-Watched College Basketball Game This Season

Saturday’s top-5 matchup between then-No. 4 Virginia and No. 1 Duke delivered a Nielsen reported audience of 3,764,000 viewers, making it the most-watched college basketball game across all networks this season. The audience peaked at 4,980,000 viewers in the telecast’s final minutes of the game.

Season-to-date, men’s college basketball on ESPN and ESPN2 is up eight percent. ESPN networks have aired the 44 most-viewed games on cable, including seven of the top 10 across all networks.

Top markets for Virginia-Duke matchup:

Rank Market Rating
1 Louisville 11.2
Raleigh-Durham 11.2
3 Greensboro-High Point 10.2
4 Richmond 9.9
5 Norfolk-Portsmth-N. Nws 7.6

ESPN’s Sonic Blockbuster franchise is averaging 2,332,000 viewers through seven games, up 36 percent in comparison to last year.

Saturday Showcase
Kentucky’s win at Auburn averaged 1,878,000 viewers, while Wisconsin’s win over then-undefeated Michigan averaged 1,650,000 viewers, both now top 10 games this season on ESPN.

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Anna Negron

It was always a dream of mine to work at ESPN, and here I am! I joined the College Sports PR team in March 2016. Hailing from the great Garden State, I graduated from Seton Hall University (Go Pirates!) with a degree in sport management, where I not only sang the National Anthem at games, but was also a member of the Seton Hall Sapphires Dance Team and a student reporter for Pirate Sports Network. Before joining ESPN, I served as a Public Relations Associate for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
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