It’s a good time to be Sara Gaiero. Responsible for strategic oversight and management of ESPN’s NCAA women’s basketball coverage, Gaiero presides over a property with massive viewership momentum. And her enthusiasm is as palpable as that of USC star JuJu Watkins seeing no defenders in front of her in the open court.
Two of the four most-watched regular-season women’s college basketball games since 1999 have happened this month, including Caitlin Clark and Iowa’s win over Ohio State (which drew 3.39 million viewers on Fox) and Iowa’s win over Nebraska in the Big Ten tournament final (which averaged 3.02 million viewers on CBS). Two other high-profile women’s games on March 10 also drew tremendous viewership in the non-Clark category: ESPN averaged 1.96 million viewers for a feisty South Carolina-LSU matchup and 1.44 million viewers for USC’s win over Stanford. Sports Media Watch said that day was the largest women’s regular-season audience on the ESPN networks since 2010.
Overall, the season-long ratings story was sensational. ESPN platforms aired 13 games that surpassed 500,000 viewers, the most on record in a regular season. Games on ABC and ESPN have averaged 476,000 viewers in 2023-24, the most-watched regular season on ESPN platforms since 2008-09. Fox,…
