TV Ratings: Women's Madness Sets Records

Last year’s NCAA women’s basketball championship set an all-time ratings record for a women’s game on ESPN. A rematch of that game — albeit two rounds earlier in the tournament — on Monday night drew an even bigger crowd, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Iowa’s 94-87 victory over LSU averaged 12.3 million viewers for ESPN, the largest TV audience ever for a women’s basketball game in the United States. The previous record was set more than 40 years ago, when CBS’ broadcast of the 1983 title game — featuring USC legend Cheryl Miller — drew 11.83 million people. LSU’s 102-85 win in last year’s championship game was the previous ESPN record, drawing 9.9 million viewers across ABC and ESPN2.

The Iowa-LSU game was by far the most watched show in primetime Monday, more than doubling the audience for the biggest program (CBS’ NCIS at 5.9 million) on the broadcast networks.

Monday’s late game, Connecticut’s 80-73 win over USC, also topped all broadcast shows with about 6.7 million viewers. Sunday afternoon, South Carolina and Oregon State averaged 3.1 million viewers on ABC, while North Carolina State and Texas brought in 2.5 million. Together they’re four of the five biggest women’s Elite Eight games ever, and the averaged of 6.2 million for the round is up 184 percent over last year.

Iowa, whose Caitlin Clark became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer (women’s and men’s) earlier in the season, has been drawing huge viewership throughout the tournament; its four games thus far have averaged about 6.83 million viewers. LSU has also been a strong draw, averaging 4.73 million viewers for its tournament run.