Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, JuJu Watkins deliver huge viewing numbers

As expected, Monday night’s women’s NCAA Tournament doubleheader featuring the brightest stars in the game was a ratings bonanza for ESPN.

In total, an eye-popping 12.3 million viewers watched Iowa’s Caitlin Clark top Angel Reese’s LSU team, the defending national champion, to return to the Final Four, making it the most-watched women’s college basketball game on record. Clark was magnificent, scoring 41 points and amassing 12 assists while helping the Hawkeyes avenge last year’s loss to the Tigers in the national title game.

“To put that [12.3 million viewers] in context,” ESPN executive Flora Kelly posted on X, “it ranks above all but one men’s NCAA tournament game, all but one NBA Finals game and every World Series game in the most recent postseasons.”

Assessing the massive audience from another perspective, it represented ESPN’s second-highest audience for any basketball game since 2012.

The Iowa-LSU game, which peaked at 16.1 million viewers, also set a new record for women’s basketball viewership, which was previously set in 1983, when 11.8 million watched the national championship, according to Sports Media Watch. Last year’s national title game attracted 9.9 million viewers on ABC, which had been the most-watched women’s college game on record in the modern era.

In the second half of the doubleheader, another huge viewing audience — 6.7 million — watched UConn’s Paige Bueckers lead the Huskies to their 23rd Final Four, edging out USC and its All-American freshman JuJu Watkins.

In all, the women’s Elite Eight averaged 6.2 million viewers, marking a 184% increase year over year and making it the most-watched women’s Elite Eight on record.

The South Carolina–Oregon State Elite Eight game attracted 3.1 million viewers on ABC, with the Texas–NC State attracting 2.5 million on ABC.

Final Four could break viewing records

Expectations are also high for the viewing audience for this year’s Final Four in Cleveland. Friday’s national semifinals match Clark against Bueckers in a must-see affair and undefeated South Carolina, in its fourth consecutive Final Four, against NC State.

Media experts have told On3 that a potential Clark-South Carolina national championship game on Sunday could yield viewing numbers that rival the men’s championship game. The women’s game will be broadcast Sunday afternoon on ABC, with the men’s final on TBS on Monday night.

“No matter which way it went tonight,” LSU’s Reese said, “I know this was going to be a night for the ages.”