ESPN Seeks More Ratings Gold With Clark-Reese Showdown

Just one week after the rematch between Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever and Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky notched the WNBA’s biggest TV deliveries in 23 years, the league is going to the well again this afternoon with yet another showdown between the two rivals.

The Fever’s 91-83 win over the Sky averaged 2.25 million viewers on CBS last Sunday, marking the second time in the young season that a WNBA contest topped the 2 million-viewer mark. Prior to that June 16 blockbuster, the May 14 meeting between the Fever and the Connecticut Suns averaged 2.12 million viewers on ESPN2.

Before Clark was picked first in this year’s draft, no WNBA game had so much as reached the 1 million-viewer threshold since 2008. As it happens, a record 2.45 million viewers tuned in to watch the Iowa star’s selection on ESPN; per Nielsen, the previous high for a WNBA draft was 601,000 viewers in 2004, when Phoenix made Diana Taurasi the No. 1 overall pick.

The season’s first meeting between Indiana and Chicago averaged 1.53 million viewers on ESPN. Since the season began, the Fever have appeared in each of the top five most-watched WNBA games.

Last week’s Fever-Sky game saw Clark score 23 points in 37 minutes, a span in which she also pulled in eight boards and dished out nine assists. Aliyah Boston, last season’s No. 1 pick, scored 19 points for Indiana. Reese racked up 11 points and 13 rebounds, while Marina Mabrey and Chennedy Carter combined for 40 points in a losing effort.

On Thursday night, Reese became the first rookie to stitch together seven consecutive double-doubles, scoring 16 points and grabbing a career-best 18 rebounds in an 83-72 win over Dallas.

Today’s game tips off at 4 p.m. EDT on ESPN. The next, and final, regular-season meeting between the two teams is scheduled for Aug. 30 on ION TV. After this afternoon’s game wraps, the Fever are slated to appear in another 20 nationally televised outings, a slate that includes a July 6 meeting with the New York Liberty on CBS and an Aug. 19 home game against the Seattle Storm on ABC.

Chicago still has nine national dates in store, including a July 13 ABC game against the Liberty and an Aug. 25 bout with the defending champion Las Vegas Aces on CBS.

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