For however much longer Caitlin Clark and Iowa remain in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, more and more viewership records are likely to fall.
Saturday’s Holy Cross-Iowa NCAA women’s basketball tournament first round game averaged a 1.8 rating and 3.23 million viewers on ABC, marking easily the largest audience for a women’s tournament game prior to the Final Four. The previous high was 2.50 million for Iowa-Louisville in last year’s Elite Eight.
The previous high for a first round game was a mere 767,000 for UConn-Mercer on ABC two years ago. This year is just the fourth in which first and second round games have aired nationally, as opposed to regionally.
Compared to UConn-Vermont in the same window last year, ratings increased fourfold and viewership fivefold from a 0.40 and 636,000.
For the day, the Hawkeyes’ win ranked sixth among sporting events behind five NCAA men’s tournament games. The competing Gonzaga-Kansas matchup on CBS had a 4.4 and 8.28 million.
Earlier in the day, Jackson State-UConn averaged a 0.6 and 1.08 million — up 53% in ratings and 68% in viewership from Tennessee-Saint Louis last year (0.42, 639K). Even at a far smaller audience than the Iowa game, that ranks second among first round games under the current scheduling format.
On Sunday, LSU’s comeback win over Middle Tennessee State averaged a 1.2 and 2.01 million — marking the largest second round tournament audience on record, pending results from Monday night. The previous high was 1.46 million for Iowa-Georgia on ABC last year. Ratings and viewership increased 40% from Iowa-Georgia — featuring Clark — last season (0.8, 1.44M).
South Carolina-North Carolina led in with a 0.8 and 1.19 million, up a comparably modest 14% and 5% respectively from South Carolina-USF a year ago (0.7, 1.14M).
On cable, Stanford’s narrow win over Iowa State topped the charts with a 0.7 and 1.18 million on ESPN — up 81% in ratings and 77% in viewership from Mississippi-Stanford last year (0.38, 665K). Baylor-Virginia Tech led in with a 0.6 and 1.05 million, up 77% and 56% respectively from Michigan-LSU a year ago (0.35, 676K).
Ratings and viewership for Monday’s second round games can be seen in the preceding link.
