- WNBA. Caitlin Clark reveals what really matters to her amid MVP controversy, difficult playoff debut
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Just like her season opener, Caitlin Clark faced and lost against the Connecticut Sun in her first playoff game. The score in both games was strikingly similar: back on May 14, the Indiana Fever lost 92-71, and Sunday's playoff game ended in a worse defeat, 93-69. This loss puts Indiana's season on the line, as the first round is a best-of-three series. Tomorrow, Caitlin Clark could say goodbye to an incredible season in which she not only broke records on the court but also shattered past ratings, making this the most-watched season in WNBA's 28-year history.
Caitlin Clark's Historic Viewership Numbers
The WNBA regular season was also the most-watched on ESPN Networks, with an average of 1.2 million viewers per game, a massive jump from last year's 440,000 viewers. This trend seems to continue into the playoffs, especially in Caitlin Clark and the Fever's games. Clark's first playoff game drew 1.8 million viewers despite competing with an NFL Sunday that featured the Baltimore Ravens vs. Dallas Cowboys, with Tom Brady in the commentary booth discussing Derrick Henry's dominant performance.
Attracting such a large audience while competing with the NFL, especially during a Dallas Cowboys game, speaks volumes about the attention Clark has brought to the WNBA. The league had 22 regular-season games that averaged more than 1 million viewers, and when you add the WNBA All-Star Game and WNBA Draft, both of which were the most-watched in history, it totals 24 programming events that sured 1 million viewers. According to Sports Media Watch, Clark was involved in all but three of these games, and tomorrow's must-win game for Clark will likely top 1 million viewers as well.
Before this season, no WNBA game had averaged over a million viewers since 2008, and now with Clark's arrival, it looks to be a trend. Clark appeared in 34 Nielsen-rated broadcasts this season, 32 Fever games, plus the All-Star Game and Draft, with more than half of her appearances crossing the million-viewer mark. Her offensive style, based on assists and three-pointers, has drawn attention to the league, along with the talent of veteran players who help keep the system running smoothly.
WNBA Playoffs Continue Today
Today, I predict that the first semifinal series will be set and it will be a rematch of last season's finals. First up, the New York Liberty (1-0), the best team of the season, will face the Atlanta Dream. A victory for Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart seems inevitable. After that, MVP A'Ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces (1-0) will take on the Seattle Storm. This game is expected to be much closer, but a Las Vegas victory would bring them closer to a second three-peat in history. This series could be considered a prelude to the finals, and should Clark be eliminated tomorrow, we'll see how much attention the rest of the playoffs generate.