Women’s sports have long been the source of ridicule among male sports viewers. One of the main arguments surrounding the inferiority of women’s sports — specifically women’s basketball — is that nobody watches.
That myth is exactly that: a myth.
Especially when talking about the Women’s Final Four on ESPN. For the past several years, ESPN has made the somewhat controversial move of airing the Women’s Final Four on the ‘mothership’, while relegating baseball’s Opening Night telecast to ESPN2.
The Women’s Final Four routinely outdraws the competing Opening Night baseball game (the gap between the two events was as large as 4.1 to 1.4 in 2002).
Last year, the 2006 Women’s College Basketball National Championship Game drew a 3.1 cable rating, comparable to first round NBA Playoff coverage and higher than at least four 2006 Major League Baseball Division Series games on ESPN. Additionally, the game between Maryland and Duke drew larger numbers than any of USA Network’s coverage of The Masters during that same week.
In 2005, a Women’s Final Four game between Michigan State and Tennessee outdrew the baseball Opening Night game airing in the same timeslot on ESPN2, a game involving the Yankees and Red Sox the year after the 2004 ALCS (where Boston came back from 3-0 down to win). The Final Four game and the NYY/BOS game both drew a 2.7 cable rating (still tied for the record high regular season rating for a baseball game on ESPN2).
In 2004, a Women’s Final Four match-up nearly doubled the competing baseball Opening Night game on ESPN2 (Red Sox/Orioles), 3.1 million HH to 1.6 million HH. That same year, the National Championship Game between Tennessee and UConn drew a record 4.3 cable rating (with a 3.5 national rating), then the highest rating ever for a basketball game on ESPN (several NBA Playoff games have since broken this record). That game was seen in 3.8 million homes and outperformed all competition (excluding golf) on broadcast and cable for the week (April 5 – 11).
Women’s basketball is viewed as a joke in many corners. However, the ratings reflect that a sizable part of the viewing audience tunes in.
Women’s Final Four v. Baseball Opening Night
2006
Numbers unavailable.
2005
Women’s Final Four, Baylor/LSU: 2.2 cable rating, 1.8 national rating, 2.0 mil HH.
Women’s Final Four, Mich ST/Tenn: 2.7 cable rating, 2.2 national rating, 2.5 mil HH.
Opening Night, Red Sox/Yankees: 2.7 cable rating, 2.2 national rating, 2.4 mil HH.
2004
Women’s Final Four, MN/UConn: 3.5 cable rating, 2.8 national rating, 3.1 mil HH.
Women’s Final Four, LSU/Duke: 2.3 cable rating, 1.9 national rating, 2.0 mil HH.
Opening Night, Red Sox/Orioles: 1.9 cable rating, 1.5 national rating, 1.6 mil HH.
2003
Women’s Final Four, Tenn/Duke: 2.3 cable rating, 1.8 national rating, 2.0 mil HH.
Women’s Final Four, Texas/UConn: 3.2 cable rating, 2.6 national rating, 2.8 mil HH.
Opening Night, Rangers/Angels: Numbers unavailable.
2002
Women’s Championship, UConn/Okla: 4.1 cable rating, 3.3 national rating, 3.5 mil HH.
Opening Night, Indians/Angels: 1.4 cable rating, 1.1 national rating, 1.2 mil HH.
2001
Women’s Championship, ND/Purdue: 3.3 cable rating, 2.7 national rating, 2.7 mil HH.
Opening Night, Blue Jays/Rangers: 1.8 cable rating, 1.4 national rating, 1.5 mil HH.
*both events aired on ESPN.
