The WNBA’s momentum, which started gaining steam with Caitlin Clark’s arrival in the 2024 draft, has been unstoppable. Heading into the 2026 season, ESPN’s VP of women’s sports programming and espnW, Susie Piotrkowski, spoke about the network’s view of Clark as a “gateway drug” into women’s sports.
“If that brought you in, I’m going to keep you here,” Piotrkowski said.
Through the first half of the season, she, along with the WNBA’s other media partners in its new 11-year, $2.2 billion media deal, have delivered. The league held its 2026 All-Star Weekend in Chicago over the weekend, and per a report from Austin Karp at Sports Business Journal, WNBA telecasts are up 12% compared to last season at the All-Star Break across its rights partners.
To Piotrkowski’s credit, Clark has certainly been the biggest driver of that success, as the top seven broadcasts in the first half of the season all involved her Indiana Fever. Indiana’s win over the New York Liberty on July 18, which averaged 2.58 million viewers, was the most-watched WNBA telecast ever on CBS, and the second-most-watched WNBA game this season, behind only Fever-Las Vegas Aces (2.64 million) on NBC and Peacock on July 12.
Unsurprisingly, Clark’s ratings impact was also felt over All-Star Weekend.
Per ESPN PR, Saturday’s All-Star Game averaged 3.2 million viewers, a 44% increase year-over-year, and peaked at 3.3 million viewers, making it the second most-viewed WNBA All-Star Game ever, behind only Clark’s other All-Star appearance in 2024 (she missed the 2025 game with injury).
A big night for #WNBA All-Star on ABC👏
🏀 3.2M viewers (up 44% YoY)
📈 Peak: 3.3M
📺 2nd most-viewed WNBA All-Star EVER
⭐️ Most-viewed telecast on Sat. night pic.twitter.com/fb5NGrYPuO— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) July 28, 2026
It can be difficult not to get lost in the increasingly bizarre coverage and discourse that has surrounded Clark since her days with the Iowa Hawkeyes, even for the former Rookie of the Year herself, but the unassailable fact is that she continues to be the tide that raises all boats for the WNBA.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.