Two of the most highly anticipated games of the early college basketball season drew big ratings for ESPN Tuesday night.
The Michigan State-Kentucky and Duke-Kansas men’s contests finished among the top four shows on cable for the day, according to Nielsen overnights.
The No. 2 Spartans surprised the No. 1 Wildcats with a 78-74 victory that drew 4 million viewers from 7:30 to 10:02 p.m.
It was the night’s No. 2 show on cable behind FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” which averaged 4.381 million viewers.
It seemed the lower-ranked teams were on fire Tuesday.
Right after the Spartans’ victory, No. 5 Kansas knocked off No. 4 Duke 94-83 in a contest that drew 2.977 million viewers from 10:19 p.m. to 12:40 a.m.
The games both did well among adults 18-49 too. The Kentucky win averaged a 1.4 rating while the Kansas victory posted a 1.3.
Still, neither was anywhere close to “Sons,” which drew a 2.3 in the demo at 10 p.m. and finished first in 18-49s among all broadcast and cable competition in the hour.
“The O’Reilly Factor” was the No. 1 cable news show of the night and No. 5 overall with 2.888 million viewers.
Source: Medialife Magazine, 11/14/13
