Unfortunately for ABC, two of the WNBA’s biggest stars weren’t available for Sunday afternoon’s game on the network. Luckily, it didn’t seem to matter.
According to ESPN PR, Sunday’s game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky averaged 1.5 million viewers despite the absences of both Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese due to injury. While the game would’ve almost certainly drawn significantly more viewers had the two rivals and stars been competing, the telecast still performed historically well for ABC.
Per ESPN, the Fever’s 15-point victory ranked as the sixth most-watched WNBA regular season game in ABC’s history and the fourth most-watched so far this season. Sunday’s viewership was up 17% compared to the average audience for WNBA games on ABC last season. And season-to-date, the WNBA is up 6% in viewership versus last year across all ESPN platforms.
The WNBA would obviously like to have Caitlin Clark healthy, but the Fever have proven to be quite the draw even without her. Earlier this year, the team earned over one million viewers on Ion for a game she did not participate in. Such audiences have been commonplace for Fever games with and without Clark.
For a league that, prior to Clark’s arrival, went well over a decade without earning a single seven-figure audience, these types of viewership numbers have been a long time coming. No doubt, figures like these will play a key role in upcoming collective bargaining negotiations between the league and players. Drawing strong audiences without Clark will only further bolster the players’ leverage to broker a favorable deal after this season.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.