Caitlin Clark continues to produce record viewership for ESPN, and now the Indiana Fever star joins an exclusive sports TV company with LeBron James.
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, 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 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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Last year, the WNBA had 22 regular-season games that averaged more than 1 million viewers — the first time since 2008 that a WNBA game topped one million viewers. If you add the WNBA All-Star Game and the WNBA Draft, it makes 24 programming events during the 2024 calendar year that topped 1 million viewers (Clark was part of all but three of these windows, per Sports Media Watch).
Clark and the Fever begin the regular season on May 17. They will be featured on 41 nationally televised or streamed games in the upcoming WNBA season, the most of any franchise. Of their 44 games, 10 will be on ABC/ESPN while eight will air on ION.
Clark said games airing on ESPN “really helps” the WNBA grow the league’s reach.
“As a competitor, these are the moments you live for, when the spotlight’s on,” she said. “Like, we’re on ESPN. This is a great opportunity for our team.”
The Fever coasted to a 108-44 win over the Brazilian national team at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tickets for the exhibition sold out in 24 minutes, and average prices soared to $440, more than any of Clark’s games at Iowa or with the Fever, according to Victory Live. Fans packed the arena 90 minutes before tipoff, and the pregame introduction nearly blew her retired No. 22 jersey off the rafters at 116 decibels.
Clark scored 16 points in less than 19 minutes of playing time and sat for the fourth quarter.
(Photo: Jeffrey Becker / Imagn Images)
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