A record audience on Fox watched Caitlin Clark break “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s NCAA Division I scoring record on Sunday afternoon, as the departing Iowa star’s 35-point performance averaged 3.39 million viewers—the highest TV turnout for a regular-season women’s basketball game in 25 years.
Clark, who passed Maravich’s fabled scoring mark at the end of the first half, finished the game—and her regular-season collegiate career—with an 18-point cushion. She heads into the postseason with a new high-water mark of 3,685 points, after having broken the NCAA women’s record set by Washington’s Kelsey Plum (3,527) back on Feb. 15.
Clark’s record performance steered the Hawkeyes to a 93-83 win over Ohio State and erased the season’s previous women’s hoops high of 1.86 million viewers. As it happens, that was also a matchup of the two Big Ten schools; broadcast by NBC and won by the Buckeyes on Jan. 21.
While Fox’s TV turnout was impressive—the game was the weekend’s second most-watched sporting event, trailing only its NASCAR lead-in (4.36 million viewers)—the all-time women’s hoops ratings record remains secure. Last year, Iowa and LSU battled it out in the national championship game in front of an audience of 9.92 million viewers on ABC/ESPN2.
Among the top advertisers that suited up for Clark’s sendoff were State Farm, Google and Ram Trucks. Through Sunday night, the Fox broadcast now stands as the second biggest college basketball draw of the 2023-24 season, behind the Thanksgiving Michigan State-Arizona men’s game. Fox’s coverage of that holiday outing, which aired immediately after its coverage of its Packers-Lions broadcast, averaged a 15-year high of 5.18 million viewers opposite CBS’ presentation of the Commanders-Cowboys Turkey Day showdown (41.8 million).
Clark will have another opportunity to pad her Nielsen résumé on Friday evening, when the No. 2 seed tips off the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals against the winner of Thursday’s Penn State-Wisconsin game. The game will air on the conference’s in-house TV network, which reaches 47.5 million U.S. TV households, and will be available to stream via Fubo.
Through Sunday, women’s college basketball ratings are up 60% versus the year-ago period across all national TV windows.
This marks the last chance for Clark to steer Iowa to its first women’s hoops title, as she has declared her intentions to enter the WNBA draft next month. In an interview during the Hawkeyes’ Senior Night ceremonies, Clark thanked her fans for their fervent support over the past four years.
“This is special,” Clark said. “I don’t know if you guys realize what you’re doing for women’s basketball and women’s sports in general, but you’re changing it. You’re helping us change it.”
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