The Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese rivalry continues to be a goldmine for the WNBA and its TV partners.
Sunday’s game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever drew 2.302 million viewers to ESPN, the most-watched WNBA telecast in 23 years.
If it feels like Groundhog Day, know that the same two teams also accomplished this feat last week, with 2.25 million viewers on CBS for last Sunday’s game in Indianapolis .
While CBS is in about 15 million more homes than ESPN, last week’s game took place in a slightly better TV window — 4 p.m. ET versus noon — and it was a one-man game. point as Sky erased a 15-point deficit to win. 88-87.
Plus, the game had the ESPN hype machine behind it all week.
Of the three times the Fever and Sky have played this season, Indiana won the first two matchups while Chicago won the third; neither team broke serve and beat the other on the road.
They will play for the fourth and final time in the WNBA regular season on August 30 in Chicago.
On Monday, Magic Johnson compared the rivalry between Reese and Clark to the rich history he had with Larry Bird.
“When I think about Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s impact on the game, they remind me a lot of Larry Bird and me. Our first game, Indiana State vs. Michigan State, in the NCAA Championship set the all-time viewership record for men’s basketball. Caitlin and Angel’s 2023 NCAA Championship match and their 2024 Elite Eight matches were the highest viewership records at the time,” Johnson wrote on X.
“Larry and I have increased the overall popularity of the NBA. The Lakers and Celtics have sold out their stadiums across the league and exponentially increased their television audiences. Higher viewership led to the NBA signing much larger television contracts, which then led to higher salaries for players,” Johnson continued.
“Caitlin and Angel are now doing the same thing, selling out arenas and growing audiences. They have taken women’s basketball by storm and with the expiring TV contracts on the horizon, the WNBA is now able to negotiate higher TV contracts and increase salaries for all of the talented players.
Clark’s Iowa team lost to Reese’s LSU team in last year’s college basketball national championship game, before avenging the loss in the Elite Eight this year.
The two had faced each other several times before, including three games between Iowa and Maryland during the duo’s first two college seasons, before Reese transferred to LSU, and at least once in AAU ball when They were in high school.
New York Post
