Ex-ESPN anchor Jemele Hill ripped “irresponsible headlines” about Caitlin Clark’s impact on WNBA ratings before eventually acknowledging the point.
Sunday’s WNBA playoff game between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces was the most-watched semifinal round game the league has seen in 22 years.
The game drew an average of 929,000 viewers, up 60% from the semifinals last year.
The numbers of the rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals got the attention of Jemele Hill, who seemed to try to make a point about Caitlin Clark.
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“And yet I keep seeing irresponsible headlines claiming the WNBA playoffs are down because of no Caitlin Clark,” Hill wrote on X.
Despite historic numbers for the WNBA, it can be argued ratings would have been much higher had Clark been playing.
After Clark drew a WNBA record 1.84 million viewers for her first playoff game against the Connecticut Sun Sept. 22 while competing with an NFL Sunday, she followed it up with another record audience of 2.54 million viewers for Game 2. Clark and the Indiana Fever lost both games, however, sending Clark home for the offseason.
That Game 2 viewership was more than double what the Liberty and Aces drew earlier this week.
Hill, though, despite her take on “irresponsible headlines,” admitted viewership would be higher with Clark.
“Would the ratings be higher if she were in it? Of course. But guess what, [an NBA] Finals would rate higher if it were Lebron vs. Steph. Or, if big market teams were in the mix. So what? That’s the headline.”
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Still, it was historically good for any WNBA playoff game that doesn’t involve Clark. It was better than any of the TV numbers for the finals games between the two teams last year.
Both of those games have also fallen well behind some of Clark’s regular-reason games in terms of viewership. In early September, Clark’s Indiana Fever played in front of a TV audience of 1.26 million viewers in a game against the Minnesota Lynx that was played at the same time as a Week 1 Friday night NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers.
Clark was named the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year Thursday, receiving 66 of the 67 first-place votes. Angel Reese received the remaining vote.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
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