The debut of the new women’s basketball league Unrivaled outpaced the average audience for non-Caitlin Clark WNBA games on cable last season.
In the debut of the new 3×3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled, TNT and truTV averaged a combined 313,000 viewers for Lunar Owls-Mist and 311,000 for Vinyl-Owls Friday night. The games rank as the most-watched women’s basketball telecasts ever on the TNT Sports networks, which have primarily carried only women’s college games. The previous high was set by a Colorado-LSU women’s college game in November 2023 (184K).
Viewership peaked at 364,000 in the 8:15 PM ET quarter-hour.
Excluding games involving Clark, who is not participating in Unrivaled, Friday’s debut outpaced by nearly 50 percent the average WNBA game on cable last regular season (ESPN, ESPN2 and NBA TV). Keep in mind that is primarily due to NBA TV; excluding that network the WNBA comes out ahead by more than 50 percent (479K).
Compared to other recent debuts, Unrivaled trailed the first TGL golf event on ESPN earlier this month (919K).
Notably, Unrivaled averaged more viewers on the TNT networks Friday night than the network’s NHL doubleheader did two nights earlier (292K). (Keep in mind the NHL doubleheader in question aired earlier than usual.)
Founded by WNBA players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, Unrivaled is a 3×3 league featuring six teams of six players each. In addition to the two founders, the debut telecast included Chicago Sky F Angel Reese.
