Duke vs. UConn draws bigger audience than college football’s top rivalry, best numbers since 1993 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
In the Elite Eight, UConn defeated Duke to advance to the Final Four for the third time in four years. The late-game heroics by Braylon Mullins also brought in huge TV ratings for CBS to lead into the college basketball finale this weekend.
Sunday’s game peaked at 18.9 million viewers, which is near the average 18.4 million viewers for last year’s Ohio State-Michigan game and the 16.6 million viewers who watched the same Buckeyes team take down Texas in the season opener. Both games were on FOX.
It’s clear to say college basketball has taken a step forward. The NCAA Tournament as a whole is up, averaging 10.3 million viewers, which is the best figure since 1993.
The Duke vs. UConn game beat out the highest-rated regular season game (Duke vs. Arkansas) by nearly three times the audience at 6.8 million on CBS.
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“The national championship game between Florida and Houston averaged 18.1 million viewers on CBS, up 22% from last year’s title game,” according to the NCAA. “The broadcast peaked at 21.1 million viewers, the biggest championship audience since 2019. The men’s Final Four semifinal games averaged 15.5 million viewers across TBS, TNT and truTV, the highest since 2017 and a 21% increase from 2024.”
The Final Four kicks off on Saturday in Indianapolis with No. 2 UConn and No. 3 Illinois facing off for a spot in the National Championship game (6:09 p.m. ET, TBS). The winner will meet either No. 1 Michigan or No. 1 Arizona. The Wolverines and Wildcats are the last two top seeds remaining and the final game of the night (8:49 p.m. ET, TBS).
