Unrivaled Struggles To Draw TV Viewers Without Caitlin Clark

Published|Updated

TNT finally released the first television numbers for Unrivaled, the new women's professional 3-on-3 basketball league, and they aren't very good. Of course, TNT tried to spin the numbers as being strong, but the facts state the obvious: no Caitlin Clark means no large audiences. 

According to TNT PR, the two games on Friday night – the debut games for the new league – averaged around 312,000 viewers across TNT and TruTV. 

The company isn't going to bash its own programming, but there's no chance that TNT executives are happy about these numbers – despite their social media post touting "strong viewership." 

Sure, the games happened on a Friday night, which isn't a great television-viewing slot. 

However, one look at the WNBA ratings with Caitlin Clark shows just how much Unrivaled struggled without her. Heck, the "Clark-effect" led to WNBA games that didn't even feature Caitlin drawing an average of 400K viewers. The WNBA drew millions of viewers for its championship series even though Clark's Indiana Fever had already been eliminated. 

The fact that Unrivaled failed to come close to drawing 400,000 viewers – on its debut night, no less – is nothing short of a disaster. Especially since Angel Reese, arguably the second-most popular player in women's basketball, participated in Friday's second game. She plays for the Rose Basketball Club. 

The debut of the new women's professional basketball league, Unrivaled, struggled to draw TV viewers without the star power of Caitlin Clark.

The debut of the new women's professional basketball league, Unrivaled, struggled to draw TV viewers without the star power of Caitlin Clark.

(Imagn Images)

Keep in mind that before Clark entered the WNBA, the league averaged around 300,000 viewers for games in 2023. That number skyrocketed once Clark entered the league, with her games routinely cracking one million viewers. 

The fact that Unrivaled simply reached the 2023 WNBA average on opening night is not a good sign. Usually, start-up leagues do well in their debuts because people are curious to check out a new product. Often, though, the ratings start to fall in the ensuing weeks. 

TNT did not provide the viewership numbers for Saturday night, which featured two more games. It will be interesting to see how those games did, particularly matched up against an NFL playoff game. 

One can reasonably assume that Saturday's numbers won't be any better than Friday's numbers, which makes the obvious even more obvious: Caitlin Clark is the biggest draw in women's basketball and, without her, many fans just aren't going to tune in. 

Tags
Written by

Dan began his sports media career at ESPN, where he survived for nearly a decade. Once the Stockholm Syndrome cleared, he made his way to OutKick. He is secure enough in his masculinity to admit he is a cat-enthusiast with three cats, one of which is named "Brady" because his wife wishes she were married to Tom instead of him.