Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese Matchup Likely to Boost Ion’s WNBA Ratings

For the fourth and final time in the regular season, the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky will face off in what has become the WNBA’s marquee rivalry on the TV screen. This time around, Ion, the Scripps-owned broadcaster which inked a multiyear agreement in 2023 to air the league’s Friday night games, will get the ratings bump from having both Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Chicago’s Angel Reese on the floor together for this Midwestern dance.

Both teams, which have played under-.500 basketball nearly all season, are fighting to hold onto their playoff positions. Yet the middling status of both teams makes their ratings performances all the more remarkable.

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What can Ion expect this evening? By the looks of its own WNBA ratings this season, the broadcaster will have a strong lift. The Fever have averaged 1.1 million viewers for its Ion games in 2024, while Sky games have delivered 500,000. Ion’s Friday night WNBA games as a whole have brought in on average 600,000 viewers through Week 12 of the season, a 109% increase from last year.

“Nobody who remotely follows the WNBA would deny that Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark have had a tremendous impact on the league as they carried over their rivalry and their high standard of play from college,” Brian Lawlor, Scripps Sports president, said via email. “Both have performed at an incredible level and are having outstanding rookie seasons. There is no question they have increased interest in the league and viewership on television.”

ESPN broadcast their first meeting on June 1, and 1.53 million viewers watched a game that sparked national intrigue and outrage alike for weeks. The shoulder-check seen around the world—Chicago guard Chennedy Carter’s poor response to a previous play from Clark—set off hot takes and opportunistic commentary beyond sports, but it also built excitement for the rematch two weeks later.

CBS aired Indiana’s 91-83 home win over the Sky on June 16, garnering 2.252 million viewers for the Sunday afternoon tilt and peaking with 3 million viewers. It was, at the time, the most watched WNBA game since NBC’s Memorial Day telecast in 2001.

That mark would be reset a week later when the teams faced off in Chicago on June 23. ESPN showed the one-point win for the home Sky, and that broadcast had an average audience of 2.3 million viewers. The league said viewership peaked at 3.3 million.

The last time the two were on the same court, they set a ratings record as well—but as teammates, not foes. Clark and Reese helped the WNBA All-Stars to victory over the U.S. Olympic team in the WNBA All-Star game, which was viewed by a record 3.44 million people on July 23.

The Fever and Sky have gone in opposite directions in the two-plus weeks since the league returned from its Olympics break. Indiana was playing better basketball before the pause, but the team has truly found its rhythm since league play resumed, winning four of its last five. Chicago, meanwhile, has lost five of its last six games and is barely holding onto the final playoff spot.

Clark, the rookie who has helped both the team and league set new viewership and attendance records, comes into the contest with an apparent grip on Rookie of the Year honors, thanks to a league-leading 8.1 assists per game to go along with 18 points and 5.7 rebounds. Reese has become a double-double machine in her rookie campaign, leading the league in rebounds per game at 12.9 while chipping in 13.3 points per contest. The former LSU star has built a rabid fan base—”Reese’s Pieces”—in her in her own right that has not only filled the seats across the league but helped Reese gain an endorsement deal with Hershey’s.

Friday night’s game, which takes place in Chicago’s Wintrust Arena, has done quite well at the gate. According to ticket technology company Logitix, the average resale price sold for tonight is $385.71, eclipsing the $280.43 average resale price of the last contest on June 23. In a season where the secondary WNBA ticket market has exploded, Logitix says, Fever/Sky Part 4 is by far the most in-demand ticket of the season.

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