Upon learning that Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese would be joining forces against the U.S. women’s national team for this year’s WNBA All-Star Game, I was instantly curious about the most-watched WNBA All-Star Game in history. That came in 2003, when 1.441 million viewers tuned into ABC on a Saturday afternoon for a tilt at Madison Square Garden. The game featured an abundance of all-time players, including Lisa Leslie, Sue Bird, Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, Tamika Catchings, Tina Thompson, Lauren Jackson, Teresa Weatherspoon, Chamique Holdsclaw, Katie Smith, Yolanda Griffith, Swin Cash and Nykesha Sales, among others. (There was also a first-time All-Star guard from the New York Liberty named Becky Hammon. Whatever happened to her, anyway?)
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An easy prediction: This year’s game will break the 2003 viewership record. Why? Well, you’ve heard this a million times, but broadcast television still matters when it comes to live sports. Last year’s WNBA All-Star Game is a perfect example. It was the first one to air on a network (ABC) in prime time, and viewership popped significantly. The 2023 WNBA All-Star Game averaged 850,000 viewers on ABC (and peaked at 950,000 viewers), making it the most-watched WNBA All-Star Game since 2007. It was a double-digit increase in viewership over the 2022 event, which aired on a Sunday afternoon.
BUT FIRST, let’s get you ready for WNBA All-Star Weekend and what’s to come once this weekend wraps up. The fun is just heating up 🔥 pic.twitter.com/fwP8a9WXT1
See AlsoReese: 'Everybody wants' ASG pairing with ClarkStarting 5, July 25: Men’s, Women’s and 3x3 Olympic competitions in ParisArike does it again, Clark and Reese deliver and Team WNBA upsets Team USAWNBA All-Star Game updates— WNBA (@WNBA) July 18, 2024
ESPN officials are understandably over the moon about what is coming Saturday night in Phoenix. This year’s game features a group of All-Stars who were selected by a combination of fan, player, media and coach voting and will face Team USA, arguably the greatest national team program in Olympic history. Clark and Reese will team together for the first time — a major story in itself — and Team USA is a parade of future Hall of Famers led by A’Ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart. You need more storylines? How about the multitudes who believed Clark should have made the Olympic team?
The game tips off Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET with a special onsite edition of “WNBA Countdown” beginning at 8 p.m. Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and Holly Rowe will call the game. LaChina Robinson hosts studio coverage alongside analysts Andraya Carter, Carolyn Peck and Chiney Ogwumike. The skills challenge and 3-point contest air Friday at 9 p.m. on ESPN.
One reason I expect a significant viewership number — 2 million viewers would not surprise me — is that this All-Star Game will be different given its expected competitiveness. “It’s not going to be sort of exhibition style in terms of what you normally expect when you tune in to watch the All-Star Game,” ESPN vice president of production Sara Gaiero said. “We very much conversed about how best to document and deliver, knowing that it will be competitive and knowing we’ve got these really unique pairings and matchings that will generate interest. We’ll have our normal game hat on, if you will, as opposed to more of an entertainment hat.”
This all comes within a larger story of soaring women’s basketball interest. As reported by The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov, the WNBA is set to receive roughly $2.2 billion over the next 11 years in rights fees in its new deals — an average of $200 million a year — with an opening to earn more over that period, according to league sources briefed on the contracts.
“You had the interaction (between Clark and Reese) at the end of the national championship game in 2023. Then, in the regional finals game in Albany this year, it was all about the basketball,” Lobo said. “Their first meeting in the WNBA involved the Chennedy (Carter) hit, so that was a little bit different. But their second and third meetings were really high-level play — exciting, fun, close basketball games. I think people just love watching these two women compete against one another. What’s exciting and intriguing for me is we’re talking about teams that are not in the top five or six in the standings. In the next few years, if Indiana and if Chicago get to a place where they’re contending for a championship, and these two young women are helping fuel and lead those teams, how great that in addition would be for the league to have the kind of energy that people have around Caitlin and Angel, and if it also involved championship stakes? It’s a good future for the league.”
“People want to watch them, to consume them, whether they’re playing basketball or walking down the hallway or showing off their fits,” Robinson said of Reese and Clark. “They have really entered into new territory where not just sports fans are interested in Angel and Caitlin, but they’re household names. I do think we’ve seen a trend of them being used for divisiveness, and I hope we see that part of it taper down over time. I know that comes with sport, but some of the narratives and just some of the terrible comments that are made towards these women that are non-basketball related have really been disappointing. Other than that, I think with Caitlin and Angel leading the way, women’s basketball is in good hands.”
Along with the star rookies, the ABC broadcast will focus on giving the Olympic team a sendoff. The U.S. women are on a 55-game Olympic winning streak dating back to 1992. They have won seven consecutive gold medals. “We’ll take that opportunity to go tell some of the stories for that team composition and what they’ve got ahead,” Gaiero said. “That’s a really unique opportunity for us as well as we hand it off to our NBC colleagues.”
The WNBA already had 16 games this season top 1 million viewers, a remarkable achievement given the league had not hit the million viewership mark in the previous 16 years. Clark has played in 14 of those 16 games. The two most-watched games this season were between Clark’s Indiana Fever and Reese’s Chicago Sky. Each topped 2 million viewers.
This Saturday will add to the list. The only question is how high the viewership number will be.
(Photo: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
Richard Deitsch is a media reporter for The Athletic. He previously worked for 20 years for Sports Illustrated, where he covered seven Olympic Games, multiple NCAA championships and U.S. Open tennis. Richard also hosts a weekly sports media podcast. Follow Richard on Twitter @richarddeitsch
