The headlines and stories are getting a bit repetitive, but no less impressive. Fox drew a record audience for Caitlin Clark and Iowa’s win over Ohio State on Sunday.
Per a Tuesday release, the game averaged 3.39 million viewers. That’s Fox’s most-watched women’s college basketball game ever, and the most-watched regular season women’s game since 1999.
Sunday’s Ohio State-Iowa game ft. Caitlin Clark’s record-breaking performance scored 3.39 million viewers on FOX
🏀Most-watched reg season WCBB game on any net since 1999
🏀Most-watched WCBB game in FOX Sports history
🏀Viewership peaked at 4.42 million viewers from 3-3:14 PM ET pic.twitter.com/GvTtjlmCSd— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) March 5, 2024
It’s also the second most-watched college basketball game, men’s or women’s, this season. Fox’s Thanksgiving Day broadcast of Michigan State-Arizona, which followed an NFL game, averaged 5.18 million viewers. Additionally, only four NBA games drew a larger audience than the Iowa-Ohio State rematch.
The only sports event this weekend to average more viewers was Fox’s broadcast of a NASCAR race from Las Vegas, which averaged 4.359 million viewers in the window after the Iowa game.
For Fox’s broadcast network, the bad news is that this was their last crack at airing one of Clark’s games. ESPN owns the rights to the entire NCAA Women’s Tournament, while the Big Ten Tournament will air on Peacock, the Big Ten Network (owned by Fox), and CBS. Fox also owns no WNBA rights, with those games airing nationally on CBS, ESPN, and Ion.
This season, both NBC and Fox (multiple times) drew record audiences for women’s college basketball games. Clark and Iowa were ever-present in those games, and it’ll be interesting to see how (or if) the networks can carry that momentum into next fall.
