The Athletic’s inaugural “Golden Clickers” are designed to highlight the good, the bad and the monumental from the 2024 Sports Media year.
So, without further adieu, the first envelope please …
Golden Clicker Sports Media Person of the Year
Caitlin Clark
There is a lot of debate about Clark in this divided age fueled by social media. She lifted the TV popularity of NCAA women’s hoops and the WNBA to new heights. As Michael Mulvihill, Fox’s president of insights and analytics, told The Athletic, “There’s Jordan, Tiger and Caitlin.”
She has had a generational sports media impact. Two record-crushing data points stand out:
Women’s college basketball: Clark’s appearance in the 2024 women’s college basketball National Championship game drew the largest TV audience in the history of women’s college basketball. The game’s 18.9 million viewers was more than 4 million than tuned in for the men’s championship game – a first in sports TV history.
WNBA: Clark’s arrival in the WNBA coincided with the league’s biggest TV ratings ever in 2024: A league-record 23 regular-season games went over 1 million viewers – 19 featured Clark. According to Nielsen, Clark’s games averaged 1.19 million viewers – WNBA games without Clark averaged 394,000. Going…
 in sports media in 2024.){kind=link}