SUMMARY The Chicago Sky’s WNBA matchup against the Indiana Fever, which featured a flagrant foul against the Fever’s Caitlin Clark and sparked a contentious discussion about the No. 1 draft pick after the game, drew an average audience of 1.53 million viewers, according to ESPN on Tuesday. This represents the latest surge in interest in women’s basketball.
According to an ESPN press release, the game had a peak viewership of 2.19 million and was the most seen program of the day on television.
The game on Saturday attracted 346% more views than the regular season viewing average of the previous year. This was Clark’s first matchup against university rival Angel Reese since the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Chennedy Carter of Chicago fouled Clark in the game, which the Fever won 71-70 to record their first home victory of the year. Carter shoulder-checked Clark before the ball was inbounded in the third quarter, an action that the league later escalated to a flagrant 1 penalty.
Both general manager and former coach Lin Dunn and the head coach of the Fever criticized the foul, calling it “unacceptable” and “there’s a difference between tough defense and unnecessary.” It must end!
Clark said post-game she wasn’t expecting the foul, “but it’s just like, respond, calm down and let your play do the talking. It is what it is”—Carter, on the other hand, declined to answer questions about the foul post-game, saying: “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions.”
Reese was fined $1,000 by the league for not making a post-game press appearance—and the team was fined $5,000—though she said Monday the foul was “just competition” and expressed frustration at all the attention being placed on Clark, adding: “the reason why we’re watching women’s basketball is not just because of one person. It’s because of me, too,” ESPN reported.
The majority of the sports media, including Pat McAfee, who faced backlash for his remarks, talked about the foul on Clark into Sunday and Monday. While talking about Clark and her influence on “The Pat McAfee Show,” McAfee chastised media figures who claimed that the WNBA’s rise in popularity was only attributable to the rookie class as a whole. “Well, let’s call it what it is; the Indiana team has a superstar on the white team,” McAfee remarked. Soon
Following the presentation, McAfee expressed regret on social media, writing, “I have way too much respect for her and women to put that into the universe,” in a post on X, the website that was once known as Twitter. Like the entire episode, my intentions were nice when I said it, but many people are claiming that it wasn’t at all
SportsMediaWatch reports that the attendance at the WNBA game on Saturday was the fourth-highest in the previous 22 years. There have been four events involving Clark: her professional debut on May 14 (2.12 million views), a game on May 18 (1.71 million viewers), and a game on May 20 (1.56 million viewers) versus the New York Liberty.
Clark, who is primarily responsible for increasing interest in women’s basketball at the NCAA and WNBA levels, signed a $338,056 four-year contract with the Fever last month and made her professional debut. With 11 games left in the season, Clark is averaging 15.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 6.4 assists. She has expressed in recent weeks that she feels like she’s “getting hammered,” that “everyone is physical with me,” and that some opponents “get away with things that other people don’t get away with,” but she has found it difficult to adjust to the physicality of the professional game. According to ESPN, Clark has committed three technical fouls this season and is averaging 2.9 fouls per game.
