Here's a WNBA tip: Put every Caitlin Clark game on national television
Cris Collinsworth delivered a mountain of sports television truthfulness a couple of years ago during an appearance on 'The Dan Patrick Show.' The show's host asked the NBC Sunday Night Football analyst an insightful question about the relationship between networks airing Dallas Cowboys games and the Cowboys' actual performance.
'If NBC has their choice, we would do 17 Cowboys games,' Collinsworth admitted. 'I'm not kidding. It doesn't even matter what their record is. They could be 4-6, we would take them. It's insanity, but it's true. They draw the ratings.'
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The WNBA also has its own viewership unicorn, except it's a singular player versus a team. The league's viewers cannot get enough of Caitlin Clark.
Here are the facts:
The WNBA had 22 regular-season games last year that averaged more than 1 million viewers — the first time since 2008 that a WNBA game topped 1 million viewers. If you add in the WNBA All-Star Game and the WNBA Draft, that makes 24 WNBA events that topped 1 million viewers during the 2024 calendar year.
Clark was part 21 of those 24 windows, per Sports Media Watch. And last year, six different WNBA television partners set viewership records for their highest WNBA game. All six involved the Fever.
On to 2025. The WNBA's first nationally televised exhibition game, which featured Clark returning to Iowa as a member of the Fever against Brazil's national team on May 4, averaged 1.3 million viewers on ESPN. Only two of ESPN's 57 NBA preseason games since 2010 have drawn a higher audience, according to Flora Kelly, ESPN's vice president of research. Both games featured LeBron James, including a 2017 preseason game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls (1.4 million viewers) and a 2018 preseason game between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers (2 million viewers).
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Look, it's OK to acknowledge it. The WNBA has transcendent basketball players such as reigning MVP A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart of the defending champion New York Liberty. But when it comes to public interest, one star rises above all, and she wears No. 22 for the Indiana Fever. Her coach, Stephanie White, called the interest in Clark 'Taylor Swift 2.0.'
The league seems to have recognized this and should make no apologies for it. The Fever are featured on national television in 41 of their 44 regular-season games, the most for a single team in WNBA history. Five Fever games will air on ABC, five on ESPN, eight on ION, six on Prime Video, three on the CBS Network, four on CBS Sports Network and 10 on NBA TV.
But I would go further. I would flex the three remaining games not currently scheduled for national television (June 10 versus the Atlanta Dream, July 5 against the Los Angeles Sparks, and July 30 against the Phoenix Mercury) into national television dates. Every network should be interested. A WNBA spokesperson confirmed to that no restrictions would prevent non-nationally televised games from becoming nationally televised.
If the Fever stay healthy, the roster suggests they will be one of the top teams in the league. (I'm going to be bold and predict they win 12 of their first 14 games.) The Fever are +300 (3-to-1) odds to win the WNBA title on BetMGM, behind just the Liberty and Aces. Clark is the preseason betting favorite to win the league's MVP at +195 (which, as a straight bet, means a win would be $19.50 on a $10 wager).
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Clark helps the league bring in casual fans, which is how sports leagues grow. The more people see the Fever, the higher the league's viewership average. The higher the viewership averages, the more power the players possess in collective bargaining. It helps everyone.
The Aces will appear on 33 national broadcasts, and the Liberty will have 32. The league should do everything in its power to nationalize as many games as possible with teams of interest. If other franchises complain, whatever. Think the NFL cares if the Jaguars complain that the Cowboys and Chiefs get more primetime games? Of course not. Which teams will open the 2025 NFL season? The Eagles and Cowboys (who were 7-10 last year) will play on Sept. 4 on NBC and Peacock.
Tim Corrigan, ESPN's senior vice president of sports production, said from a network perspective, any flex games picked up would come from a combination of a network's programming department and the league coming together. But fundamentally, ESPN would certainly be interested in adding any games of interest.
'The flex scheduling we did on the NBA this year, I believe, was the most we'd ever done,' Corrigan said. 'I would hope that we would be equally ambitious with the WNBA because that's what people want to see. You want to be where the story is, right?'
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The players are also well aware when they are in a showcase slot.
'As a competitor, you know that you're on national TV, but it shouldn't change where you play,' said Sparks guard Kelsey Plum. 'I think that it's definitely fun to be in those big games, especially prime time ABC or CBS. The Sunday games are always super fun. Like that 3 o'clock tip, no shoot around, just get up, eat some breakfast and go play. Those are really fun.'
Some additional broadcast notes heading into the WNBA season opening on Friday:
• The league has 13 regular-season games airing on ABC, the most ever on that network. ABC will broadcast Saturday's opening-weekend doubleheader, featuring the Aces-Liberty (and the ring ceremony) at 1 p.m. ET and the Sky-Fever at 3 p.m. ET. I think the Sky-Fever will set a new viewership record for the most-watched WNBA regular season game on ABC. The record is less than a year old (2.23 million for the Storm at Fever on Aug. 18).
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• I'm interested to see the viewership for the first primetime WNBA regular-season games on broadcast television. CBS will air the Sky against the Fever on June 7 and August 9 in primetime. CBS Sports' overall coverage features 20 total games.
• ESPN added a second 'WNBA Countdown' studio show for game coverage. Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter will front 'Countdown' for ABC broadcasts, and the ESPN edition (based in Los Angeles) features Malika Andrews, Monica McNutt and Carolyn Peck, as well as Ogwumike and Carter. Christine Williamson will also host for ESPN. The company has a WNBA Hoop Streams social and digital pregame show.
'We're coming into this year from such a good space from where we were last year, given all the interest,' said Corrigan. 'The draft from a month ago was the second-highest rated draft that we've had. The sport is ascending, as we all know. We are taking a broader, bigger approach, with more resources, both in the studio and in the game. We've never had more resources on the WNBA.'
• Amazon Prime Video will exclusively stream the WNBA Commissioner's Cup championship game in addition to 20 other games. NBA TV has a 40-game WNBA schedule. WNBA League Pass will stream over 200 live, out-of-market games for the 2025 season.
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• A viewership number to keep in mind: 2.15 million viewers. That was the Game 5 WNBA Finals viewership for the Liberty's win over the Lynx in an overtime thriller. It was the most-viewed WNBA Finals game in 25 years and peaked with 3.3 million viewers. The four-game WNBA Finals in 2023 between the Aces and Liberty averaged 728,000 viewers.
• Signature matchups: The Liberty and Aces will play three times (May 17, July 8 and Aug. 13), with all of those games airing on ABC or ESPN. The Lynx play the Liberty four times in a rematch of last year's finals. Those games will air on ESPN (8 p.m. ET on July 30), ABC (12:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 10), CBS Network (2 p.m. ET on Aug. 16) and NBA TV (7 p.m. ET on Aug. 19).
• Will ESPN add a women's basketball-specific daily studio show during the WNBA season? Corrigan said: 'It's a really fair question, especially now, where the sport is. Here's a great thing for us: As the WNBA extends out to L.A. with our studio show, we have our daily 'NBA Today' show out there, and we are going to be able to put WNBA in that show a lot as we follow big stories. We have an hour every day to dive into what matters in professional basketball, so you'll see the WNBA represented more on 'NBA Today' because they are in season, and there's going to be great storylines that we can follow. When people come in to play the Sparks, we're hoping to get WNBA players to come visit the set and be on the 'NBA Today' set.'
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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