Caitlin Clark as a viewership draw simply soared to a brand new degree.
No. 1 Iowa’s 64-54 pressure crammed win over eighth-seeded West Virginia on Monday night time — the ultimate dwelling recreation for Clark at Carver-Hawkeye Enviornment in Iowa Metropolis — averaged a large 4.9 million viewers on ESPN. That viewership quantity shatters the document for the biggest tv viewers for the ladies’s match previous to the Ultimate 4. The earlier document was set in — you guessed it — Iowa’s first-round win over Holy Cross on ABC Saturday afternoon. That recreation drew 3.23 million viewers.
These are actually astounding numbers. As Sports activities Media Watch famous, Iowa’s win over West Virginia is the third-largest viewers for any ladies’s match recreation previously 20 years behind final yr’s nationwide championship loss to LSU (9.92 million) and its nationwide semifinal win over South Carolina two days earlier (5.60 million).
Sports activities Media Watch additionally reported that ESPN’s household of networks has seen different video games high the 2-million viewership mark within the early rounds, which is a brand new frontier for the game. Connecticut’s win over Syracuse on Tuesday night time drew 2.05 million viewers whereas LSU’s win over Center Tennessee on ABC on Sunday drew 2.01 million.
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