Kentucky-North Carolina was most-watched CBS Sports Classic game since 2018

Outside of the NFL, Kentucky-North Carolina was the most-watched sporting event in the country this past Saturday.

According to Sports Media Watch, Kentucky’s 87-83 win over North Carolina in Atlanta drew 2.4 million viewers for a rating of 1.3. That’s up from the same window last season that saw UCLA beat Kentucky 63-53 in Dec. 2022, which brought in just under 2 million viewers with a 1.1 rating. Saturday’s game was actually the most-viewed game of the CBS Sports Classic since Kentucky beat North Carolina 80-72 in the event back in 2018.

The game that preceded UK-UNC in this year’s CBS Sports Classic — a 67-60 win for UCLA over Ohio State — drew in far fewer eyes. Only 1.2 million people (0.7 rating) tuned in for that matchup. UK-UNC also beat out every college football bowl game from Saturday.

Kentucky-UNC drew a really high rating for a December College Basketball game…highest since 2018

It also outrated all the College Football bowl games on Saturday…another rarity https://t.co/tgFcEnsRUn

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) December 19, 2023

We’ll say it one more time… Kentucky is the needle.

The Journey continues…

We’re just one sleep away from No. 9 Kentucky men’s basketball (8-2) taking on Louisville (5-6) at the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday night, but there’s something else that needs your attention first. Last night, the talented folks over at UK Sports Video released another episode of “The Journey”, which chronicles every significant win for the Wildcats.

This time, the focus was on Kentucky’s aforementioned monster win over North Carolina. And now, we have a must-watch, nine-minute recap video that takes us behind the scenes of how it all went down. You also get some great quotes from head coach John Calipari, such as the one below.

“Have more fun than them. I’m gonna tell you again, this is not a big game — unless you win, it’s pretty big then.”