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Audience Analysis: Duke-UNC Gets Third Shot At Strong Figure; NASCAR Down In Atlanta

ESPN last Saturday night drew 4.06 million viewers for the Duke-North Carolina men’s basketball game, easily marking the best college basketball audience of the season. It passed the audience for Kentucky-UNC on CBS on Dec. 17, which drew 3.62 million viewers. Saturday also was the Duke-UNC rivalry's best figure since the second matchup of the ’15 season drew 4.24 million viewers. Duke and UNC also play on Friday night in the ACC Tournament semifinals, marking the first time the teams have met in the conference tourney since ’11. That game, which was the championship and aired on ESPN in a Sunday afternoon window, drew 2.08 million viewers.

DUKE-UNC MEN'S BASKETBALL AUDIENCE TREND ON ESPN
DATE
DAY
START (ET)
VIEWERS (000)
3/4/17
Sat.
8:16pm
4,061
2/9/17
Thurs.
8:00pm
3,085
3/5/16
Sat.
6:30pm
3,174
2/17/16
Wed.
9:07pm
2,863
3/7/15
Sat.
9:00pm
4,241
2/18/15
Wed.
8:59pm
4,136
3/8/14
Sat.
9:00pm
3,498
2/20/14
Thurs.
9:08pm
2,285
3/9/13
Sat.
8:55pm
2,787
2/13/13
Wed.
9:06pm
2,353


SECOND VERSE
: Fox on Sunday afternoon drew 6.6 million viewers for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race from Atlanta, leading all sports the week ending March 4. However, that figure marks the least-viewed second Cup race of the season in at least a decade. The race last year from Atlanta drew 6.8 million viewers.

SHOCKERS & AWE: Wichita State’s blowout win over Illinois State on Sunday afternoon drew 1.36 million viewers on CBS, marking the best audience for the Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball tournament final since ’14, when WSU’s win over Indiana State drew 1.49 million viewers. CBS drew 1.13 million viewers for Northern Iowa’s win over Evansville last year.

AROUND THE WORLD: Dustin Johnson’s win at the WGC-Mexico Championship delivered NBC 3.46 million viewers on Sunday afternoon, down from 4.02 million viewers for Adam Scott’s win last year when the event was played at Doral in Miami. This year, however, is up from 3.3 million viewers for Johnson’s win in ’15 at Doral.

The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.

TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
RAT.
VIEWERS
(000)
Monster Energy NASCAR
Cup Series: Folds of Honor
QuikTrip 500 (Atlanta)
3/5
Fox
3:00-6:30pm
3.8
6,597
College basketball:
Duke-North Carolina
3/4
ESPN
8:16-10:33pm
2.4
4,061
WGC-Mexico Championship:
Final Round
3/5
NBC
2:00-6:00pm
2.2
3,456
NBA: Warriors-Knicks
3/5
ABC
3:29-6:05pm
2.1
3,276
Premier Boxing Champions:
Keith Thurman d. Danny Garcia
3/4
CBS
9:00-11:14pm
1.9
3,060
NBA: Warriors-Bulls
3/2
TNT
8:14-10:43pm
n/a
2,704
WGC-Mexico Championship:
Third Round
3/4
NBC
3:00-6:00pm
1.6
2,492
NBA: Cavaliers-Celtics
3/1
ESPN
8:00-10:37pm
n/a
2,251
NBA: Spurs-Pelicans
3/3
ESPN
9:36pm-12:20am
n/a
1,814
NBA: Thunder-Trail Blazers
3/2
TNT
10:43pm-1:23am
n/a
1,795
College basketball:
Notre Dame-Louisville
3/4
CBS
2:10-4:06pm
1.1
1,681
NBA: Clippers-Bulls
3/4
ABC
8:29-10:55pm
1.1
1,673
College basketball:
Kansas-Oklahoma State
3/4
ESPN
6:04-7:59pm
1.0
1,645
College basketball:
Washington State-UCLA
3/4
ESPN
10:33pm-12:22am
1.1
1,644
NBA: Thunder-Mavericks
3/5
ESPN
8:30-11:00pm
1.0
1,638
College basketball:
Purdue-Northwestern
3/5
CBS
4:30-6:30pm
1.0
1,623
NBA: Rockets-Clippers
3/1
ESPN
10:37pm-1:04am
n/a
1,558
Liga MX: Leon-Club America
3/5
Univision
8:00-10:58pm
0.8
1,556
College basketball:
Vanderbilt-Kentucky
2/28
ESPN
9:05-11:12pm
n/a
1,489
College basketball:
Kentucky-Texas A&M
3/4
CBS
12:00-2:10pm
1.0
1,476
College basketball:
MVC Championship:
Wichita State-Illinois State
3/5
CBS
2:05-4:30pm
0.9
1,358
College basketball:
Arizona-Arizona State
3/4
CBS
4:06-6:00pm
0.9
1,352
College basketball:
Cincinnati-UConn
3/5
CBS
12:00-2:05pm
0.9
1,288
Gymnastics: American Cup
3/4
NBC
1:00-3:00pm
0.8
1,043
"Colgate Skating &
Gymnastics Spectacular"
3/4
ABC
3:00-5:00pm
0.7
888
Women's Soccer:
SheBelieves Cup:
U.S.-England
3/4
Fox
5:00-7:00pm
0.5
728
College basketball:
Villanova-Georgetown
3/4
Fox
12:03-2:15pm
0.4
588
"World of X Games:
Best of Aspen"
3/4
ABC
2:00-3:00pm
0.4
574
College basketball:
Seton Hall-Butler
3/4
Fox
2:33-4:45pm
0.4
543

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