TV ratings

[cullaville]

The Caitlin Clark phenomenon is absolutely insane, it's been two seasons of her crushing TV #'s and it just keeps amping up. The men's TV #'s are also really good. I really wish they were putting all the games on CBS and ABC/ESPN. It makes it much harder pulling great #'s on TBS and TruTV.

We keep hearing all that matters is football, yes college football is huge but college basketball especially the tournament is a cash cow and it's still largely untapped.

March Madness: Tournament ratings up after most-watched Elite Eight Sunday in 5 years

The Elite Eight game between NC State and Duke produced the largest audience for an Easter Sunday telecast on any network in 11 years.

apnews.com

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I do like the TNT, TBS and TRU coverage. I can watch the game I want in its entirety instead of the network deciding which game I will be watching.

 

[aceboon]

Imagine if the media had decided to hype Paige to the extent they hyped Caitlin Clark!

they did hype Paige, Paige was the most famous and popular freshmen that I can ever remember coming into college on the women's side. Clark built her own momentum and hype on her own, if you followed the women's game from the time both came into college Clark's rise was organic.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Imagine if the media had decided to hype Paige to the extent they hyped Caitlin Clark!

Give Clark her due. She deserved all the hype she got. Paige may have deserved more, but she is a pretty low key character. But it worked out in the end!

 

[Deleted at users request]

Not taking anything away from Clark. Her and Angel’s “rivalry” (wasn’t a real one but Clark doesn’t blow up this big without an antagonist) was special.

I do wonder how the ratings look if Juju doesn’t tear her ACL at the beginning of the tourney. Her and Paige were the faces of the sport and had an impending showdown on the way in the elite 8.

Her injury took a lot of juice out of the rest of the tournament.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I've never understood why the onus has always been on men's college basketball to fund everything.

Makes no sense at all now with Football having a playoff. Before the bowl system was outside of the NCAA.

 

[aceboon]

Not taking anything away from Clark. Her and Angel’s “rivalry” (wasn’t a real one but Clark doesn’t blow up this big without an antagonist) was special.

I do wonder how the ratings look if Juju doesn’t tear her ACL at the beginning of the tourney. Her and Paige were the faces of the sport and had an impending showdown on the way in the elite 8.

Her injury took a lot of juice out of the rest of the tournament.

In 2023 the Elite 8 game vs Louisville and then the Final 4 game vs South Carolina were the most watched Elite 8 and Final Four games on ESPN ever(before being broken the next season by Clark/Iowa), then the title game vs LSU was the most watched title game before being broken the next season. the viewers were already there, people point to the LSU game but the Iowa vs South Carolina Final Four game was really the tipping point for everything popping off.

 

[EricSD]

I don't think she said that.

Dawn is a huge whiner and constantly plays the victim card. It's gotten old, and a bad look for a team that has won 50% of the last 4 NC's... In fairness, she does give props to Paige, and she did last year to Caitlyn, but OMG. Your team has made it to 5 FF's in a row. Take a day off...

“Sometimes we create these narratives about great players — Caitlin was one of them; Paige is one of them right now — and we tend to forget the narrative about what our kids have been able to do, going for their third in four years,” Staley told the media on Saturday. “There’s a sentimental narrative about Paige. A great freakin’ player. Anybody would start their franchise with Paige because she’s a winner. … But when you put a narrative out there, everybody sees that, and it puts us at a disadvantage, whether you want to believe so or not. Officials see it. It’s all over TikTok. It’s all over ‘SportsCenter.’ It’s all over all of that.

“I just want to put it out there. I can’t not address it because it’s happening. It happened to us last year. Everything was about Caitlin Clark and her legacy and her ability to win a national championship. Yet we were coming into this thing undefeated, doing something that’s unprecedented at the time. We find ourselves back here in a similar situation.”

 

[superjohn]

In 2023 the Elite 8 game vs Louisville and then the Final 4 game vs South Carolina were the most watched Elite 8 and Final Four games on ESPN ever(before being broken the next season by Clark/Iowa), then the title game vs LSU was the most watched title game before being broken the next season. the viewers were already there, people point to the LSU game but the Iowa vs South Carolina Final Four game was really the tipping point for everything popping off.

It's all Clark. She played rando teams like Nebraska and other Big 10 teams who weren't going anywhere and they got a lot more eyeballs than LSU vs. South Carolina and it's carried over to the WNBA. The 16 highest rated WNBA games last season were Clark/Indiana Fever games. I live in Chicago and they have Angel Reese's face everywhere and the Chicago Sky had great attendance but it was 8,700 fans on average compared to Clark and the Indiana Fever getting 17,000 on average.

 

[MJ1]

I do like the TNT, TBS and TRU coverage. I can watch the game I want in its entirety instead of the network deciding which game I will be watching.

Agreed, TNT, TBS, and TRU are great for early rounds, but final four should always be on CBS.

 

[aceboon]

It's all Clark. She played rando teams like Nebraska and other Big 10 teams who weren't going anywhere and they got a lot more eyeballs than LSU vs. South Carolina and it's carried over to the WNBA. The 16 highest rated WNBA games last season were Clark/Indiana Fever games. I live in Chicago and they have Angel Reese's face everywhere and the Chicago Sky had great attendance but it was 8,700 fans on average compared to Clark and the Indiana Fever getting 17,000 on average.

Agreed, I remember reading articles about the ratings impact she had on the Big 10 network in the 2022-2023 season, once the main networks got on board it was a wrap. It's not "hype" to be able to pull the casual viewers in the way she has.

 

[CL82]

Imagine if the media had decided to hype Paige to the extent they hyped Caitlin Clark!

I'm not a Kaitlyn Clark fan, particularly, but she was knocking off one record after another. That justifiably created buzz.

 

[UConnJim]

Yes, you are correct. What we saw last year was a Caitlin Clark phenomenon, not a women’s basketball phenomenon. There is/will be some benefit for women’s basketball as a whole, but most of the “boom” is about this one star. For whatever reason.

The numbers don't support your statement.

NCAA Women's Basketball Championship ratings:

2010 to 2019: averaged 3.618 million

2021 to 2025 ex 2 Clark games: averaged 5.826 million
2021 to 2025 including Clark games: averaged 9.250 million

So, excluding the 2 Clark games, the women's championship ratings are +61% vs the previous decade. I would say interest in women's basketball is increasing.

And, the Iowa/South Carolina Championship was at night vs. 3 PM for UConn/South Carolina which, I believe, hurt the UConn game ratings.

 

[aceboon]

The numbers don't support your statement.

NCAA Women's Basketball Championship ratings:

2010 to 2019: averaged 3.618 million

2021 to 2025 ex 2 Clark games: averaged 5.826 million
2021 to 2025 including Clark games: averaged 9.250 million

So, excluding the 2 Clark games, the women's championship ratings are +61% vs the previous decade. I would say interest in women's basketball is increasing.

And, the Iowa/South Carolina Championship was at night vs. 3 PM for UConn/South Carolina which, I believe, hurt the UConn game ratings.

the '24 game was played in the afternoon, the last 3 title games have been in that ABC Sunday afternoon slot.

 

[businesslawyer]

The numbers don't support your statement.

NCAA Women's Basketball Championship ratings:

2010 to 2019: averaged 3.618 million

2021 to 2025 ex 2 Clark games: averaged 5.826 million
2021 to 2025 including Clark games: averaged 9.250 million

So, excluding the 2 Clark games, the women's championship ratings are +61% vs the previous decade. I would say interest in women's basketball is increasing.

And, the Iowa/South Carolina Championship was at night vs. 3 PM for UConn/South Carolina which, I believe, hurt the UConn game ratings.

I said that there had been no increase in interest in women's basketball over the past decade? Could you please show me where so that I can see if I need to see a doctor for dementia?

 

[superjohn]

the '24 game was played in the afternoon, the last 3 title games have been in that ABC Sunday afternoon slot.

I think that's a better time slot than the men's national championship game. Everyone is home on Sunday afternoon lazing around the house. The men's games have always been late Monday nights (this year a little earlier) and Monday's suck.

 

[aceboon]

I think that's a better time slot than the men's national championship game. Everyone is home on Sunday afternoon lazing around the house. The men's games have always been late Monday nights (this year a little earlier) and Monday's suck.

Agreed, I kept seeing tweets on Sunday asking why the women weren't getting a primetime slot, Sunday afternoon @ 3pm EST is primetime. NFL Sunday @ 4pm is always a big national matchup, NBA has always treated Sunday @ 3:30 as a bigtime viewership window, I don't understand why the women being played at that time is seen as a negative.

 

[Hurleyman216]

Never understood the Caitlyn Clark hype machine. Good for her, I guess, but she's not exactly Lebron James or Michael Jordan. She has had to take her lumps in the WNBA because that league was not built on individual ego and being played on thousands of commercials on repeat. I guess I'm getting older because I don't see what drives her popularity. Probably somewhat related to social media.

 

[7774]

Never understood the Caitlyn Clark hype machine. Good for her, I guess, but she's not exactly Lebron James or Michael Jordan. She has had to take her lumps in the WNBA because that league was not built on individual ego and being played on thousands of commercials on repeat. I guess I'm getting older because I don't see what drives her popularity. Probably somewhat related to social media.

She led the league in assists and was first team all WNBA as a rookie, so I'm not sure what lumps she was taking. She's an awesome player.

 

[SubbaBub]

I've asked the question for years and have still yet to find a valid explanation in print.

A lawsuit. The conferences sued the NCAA to make their own media rights deals and won. Simple as that.

The political muscle of the major bowl coalitions before they were mostly owned by ESPN was also a factor. They basically outbid the NCAA on how much money the conferences could earn.

That fed the FB breakaway from the NCAA, the original Bowl Alliance, the BCS, conference realignment 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc, and eventually the CFB.

The NCAA uses the MBBT to pay nearly all of it's expenses because it's their only real source of revenue. When the major conferences decide they can run it better and for more money. They will.

As for now, CBS and other tournament sponsors like the status quo and are paying to keep it that way. At least until Amazon buys the Crown tournament and offers double what the NCAA is getting to the conferences.

 

[Mr. Hand]

Never understood the Caitlyn Clark hype machine. Good for her, I guess, but she's not exactly Lebron James or Michael Jordan. She has had to take her lumps in the WNBA because that league was not built on individual ego and being played on thousands of commercials on repeat. I guess I'm getting older because I don't see what drives her popularity. Probably somewhat related to social media.

I can see it.

Scoring a ton of points when 1/3 of your shots are from 25+ feet will get a lot of peoples' attention. It really caught fire with the very public Angel Reese diss, and then came the scoring records.

Yeah this is not hard to figure out. It's also informs us why the phenomena didn't repeat this year: no drama. That's it.

 

[SubbaBub]

Never understood the Caitlyn Clark hype machine. Good for her, I guess, but she's not exactly Lebron James or Michael Jordan. She has had to take her lumps in the WNBA because that league was not built on individual ego and being played on thousands of commercials on repeat. I guess I'm getting older because I don't see what drives her popularity. Probably somewhat related to social media.

Strange that anyone in Husky Nation doesn't get it. What Rebecca Lobo was to a WCBB niche community(mostly east coast) Clark was to the rest of America as developed by the success of UConn and it's primary rivals and ESPN promoting the heck out of it after the lost a huge chunck of their MBB content to Fox, CBS and others.

She was an underdog (white) phenomenon from a nowhere program in the middle of nowhere illegal. Name the last B1G team that had a major WCBB program? None come to mind. It's all UConn, SEC, ND, and B12 with a couple cameos by Stanford.

 

[UConnJim]

"I said that there had been no increase in women's basketball over the past decade? Could you please show me where so that I can see if I need to see a doctor for dementia?"

What we saw last year was a Caitlin Clark phenomenon, not a women’s basketball phenomenon. There is/will be some benefit for women’s basketball as a whole, but most of the “boom” is about this one star.

I would say a 60% bump in average TV ratings excluding the Clark games is a major boost in ratings/popularity. Heck, this year's viewership was 8.5 million which is over 130% increase in the average viewership from 2010 to 2019 which is a huge increase.

 

[HuskyHawk]

It's all Clark. She played rando teams like Nebraska and other Big 10 teams who weren't going anywhere and they got a lot more eyeballs than LSU vs. South Carolina and it's carried over to the WNBA. The 16 highest rated WNBA games last season were Clark/Indiana Fever games. I live in Chicago and they have Angel Reese's face everywhere and the Chicago Sky had great attendance but it was 8,700 fans on average compared to Clark and the Indiana Fever getting 17,000 on average.

I get that it is all Clark. What I don't get is why. She's Pistol Pete in the modern age. A great shooter and scorer.

Looked up the stats last year. Clark was #1 in offensive win share. Paige was #2. Paige however was #3 in defensive win share.

Look up the all time win share leader and it is Maya Moore. Clark is 12th on that list. Box Plus minus? She's not on the leaderboard and Cameron Brink is #2 for her season last year (Sarah Strong is #1 all time). I have absolutely nothing against her. She's great. I just don't understand how she is so much more popular than the other players.

 

[aceboon]

I get that it is all Clark. What I don't get is why. She's Pistol Pete in the modern age. A great shooter and scorer.

Looked up the stats last year. Clark was #1 in offensive win share. Paige was #2. Paige however was #3 in defensive win share.

Look up the all time win share leader and it is Maya Moore. Clark is 12th on that list. Box Plus minus? She's not on the leaderboard and Cameron Brink is #2 for her season last year (Sarah Strong is #1 all time). I have absolutely nothing against her. She's great. I just don't understand how she is so much more popular than the other players.

her style of play, and she's also a great passer in addition to shooting/scoring.

 

[BigTenGuy]

her style of play, and she's also a great passer in addition to shooting/scoring.

Agree. Style of play includes making more long 3s (>25’) than any college player, man or woman, in the 6-year history of CBB Analytics tracking that stat. As frequently noted, she is the Steph Curry of WBB. Fans love the logo 3, as well as the long pin-point get-ahead passes.

Clark’s combo scoring and assisting is also under appreciated for its rarity. In the NCAA era, Clark is # 1 in PPG and # 7 in APG. As of the season-end 2024 record book, no other player in NCAA WBB history is in the top 100 of both of those categories.

 

[7774]

her style of play, and she's also a great passer in addition to shooting/scoring.

Her passing is better than her scoring, and if she was on a team surrounded by real talent instead of Iowa, she would have broken the all time assists record by a mile.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Dawn is a huge whiner and constantly plays the victim card. It's gotten old, and a bad look for a team that has won 50% of the last 4 NC's... In fairness, she does give props to Paige, and she did last year to Caitlyn, but OMG. Your team has made it to 5 FF's in a row. Take a day off...

“Sometimes we create these narratives about great players — Caitlin was one of them; Paige is one of them right now — and we tend to forget the narrative about what our kids have been able to do, going for their third in four years,” Staley told the media on Saturday. “There’s a sentimental narrative about Paige. A great freakin’ player. Anybody would start their franchise with Paige because she’s a winner. … But when you put a narrative out there, everybody sees that, and it puts us at a disadvantage, whether you want to believe so or not. Officials see it. It’s all over TikTok. It’s all over ‘SportsCenter.’ It’s all over all of that.

“I just want to put it out there. I can’t not address it because it’s happening. It happened to us last year. Everything was about Caitlin Clark and her legacy and her ability to win a national championship. Yet we were coming into this thing undefeated, doing something that’s unprecedented at the time. We find ourselves back here in a similar situation.”

Not the same as saying too much talk about Paige. I took it as not enough talk about us. But just a matter of perspective.