Duke-Arkansas sets 30-year college hoops viewership record with Thanksgiving NFL lead-in

The Thanksgiving NFL lead-out has become a prime opportunity to showcase college basketball, and this year was no exception.

Last week, Fox announced that 5.5 million viewers tuned in for North Carolina-Michigan State following the network’s Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game on Thanksgiving (a figure that has since been revised up to 6.5 million). And on Wednesday, CBS announced its college hoops lead-out between the Duke Blue Devils and Arkansas Razorbacks topped that mark.

Duke’s win over Arkansas on Thursday night, which tipped off at 7:30 p.m. ET immediately following the record-setting audience earned by the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys on CBS, averaged 6.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched regular-season college basketball game on any network in over 30 years. The last game to surpass 6.8 million viewers was Purdue-Indiana on CBS in February of 1993 (7.2 million viewers).

Viewership for Duke’s win increased 32% versus Illinois-Arkansas on CBS last Thanksgiving (5.1 million viewers), which tipped off at 4 p.m. ET following the early-afternoon NFL game. This year’s lead-in audience was approximately 20 million viewers, larger than last year (57.2 million versus 37.4 million), meaning last year’s game actually retained a slightly higher percentage of its lead-in viewership (14%) than this year’s game (12%).

Nevertheless, the post-NFL college hoops showcase games are becoming a tried-and-true strategy for networks. Both Fox and CBS well surpassed six million viewers this season, and both will likely be the most-watched regular-season college basketball games of the year. The audiences go to show just how powerful an NFL Thanksgiving lead-in can be.