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Good morning! A jam-packed newsletter today. No time to waste:
The Final Word: What the viewership numbers really mean
Let’s get this out of the way first: The men’s national championship game between UConn and Purdee averaged 14.8 million viewers, a teeny uptick from last year’s modern low of 14.69 million viewers — and four million fewer than Sunday’s women’s title game.
This is a huge talker this week. Let’s parse some reasons why these numbers are what they are:
- In college, the women’s game is simply a better product than the men’s right now. And I’m not talking about the on-court play — y’all can argue about that — but the level to which we can invest in the personalities and stories. .
- Think of it like any TV show you love. In the women’s game, we’ve spent years — sometimes even four or five — with these superstar players. Game after game, episode after episode, building parasocial relationships with the best players in the sport. On the men’s side, the superstars largely aren’t even here, and when they are, we spend maybe 10 or 15 meaningful games with them. It’s hard to build momentum that way.
