If you are reading this, you likely know who Paige Bueckers is. Maybe you are also familiar with Lauren Betts, Maddie Booker and MiLaysia Fulwiley.
But Meg Aronowitz, a senior vice president of production for ESPN and the company’s point person for its women’s basketball coverage, cannot afford to make a similar supposition. When the women’s Final Four games air on Friday (7 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m. ET), she and her ESPN colleagues have to cater, at least in part, to the casual viewer who might watch only one or two women’s basketball games each year.
“This is the part of the tournament where we have to absolutely remind ourselves that this is an entirely new audience joining us,” Aronowitz said. “I know that that sounds very TV cliche, but we have to teach them who these stars are. I tell my people — repeat your best stuff. New viewers are tuning in every round, and we have to make sure that we are giving people a reason to come back on Sunday for the title game.”
We have reached the most interesting part of this tournament as far as a media-centric examination. Why? Because of last year’s outlier viewership. ESPN executives know that it will be impossible to duplicate the Final Four viewership numbers from a year ago — and that is a direct result of Caitlin…
