OT: Will Caitlin Clark’s debut outdraw tonight’s games

[jokeboy86]

Really curious what type rating her debut gets tonight. Although its on ESPN2 I’m surprised that ESPN/WNBA were bold enough to put it on in primetime directly competing with the NHL/NBA games tonight.

[azcatz11]

I doubt it. I haven't heard anything about this prior to now and I'm pretty tapped into media. I think she's going to be an after thought sooner than later.

[dhsilv2]

I doubt it. I haven't heard anything about this prior to now and I'm pretty tapped into media. I think she's going to be an after thought sooner than later.

I swear I saw a pretty epic commercial for the game watching one of the playoff games. seems like they're marketing it pretty well from the outside.

[Pattycakes]

I doubt it. I haven't heard anything about this prior to now and I'm pretty tapped into media. I think she's going to be an after thought sooner than later.

People act like there’s never been wnba superstars before. The point is that it’s still the wnba and lack of support of the league will never change.

She should be a wnba superstar. That’s her ceiling

[BDM22]

I doubt it. I haven't heard anything about this prior to now and I'm pretty tapped into media. I think she's going to be an after thought sooner than later.

People act like there’s never been wnba superstars before. The point is that it’s still the wnba and lack of support of the league will never change.

She should be a wnba superstar. That’s her ceiling

Ya know men's professional basketball wasn't always all that popular itself. Players in the NBA used to have side jobs and off-season jobs to pay the bills. It didn't have a lot of mainstream appeal until Magic and Bird.

[TheSuzerain]

I doubt it. I haven't heard anything about this prior to now and I'm pretty tapped into media. I think she's going to be an after thought sooner than later.

People act like there’s never been wnba superstars before. The point is that it’s still the wnba and lack of support of the league will never change.

She should be a wnba superstar. That’s her ceiling

There have never been WNBA superstars before. Superstar implies people are actually drawn to watch them and tune in.

Clark is the first one of those seemingly.

[KodiakBear]

I doubt it. I haven't heard anything about this prior to now and I'm pretty tapped into media. I think she's going to be an after thought sooner than later.

People act like there’s never been wnba superstars before. The point is that it’s still the wnba and lack of support of the league will never change.

She should be a wnba superstar. That’s her ceiling

Ya know men's professional basketball wasn't always all that popular itself. Players in the NBA used to have side jobs and off-season jobs to pay the bills. It didn't have a lot of mainstream appeal until Magic and Bird.

Yep, Michael Jordan was playing against plumbers.

[dakomish23]

If it wasn’t NY playing then def yes.

[Texas Chuck]

I'm tuning in for sure.

[eyriq]

I'll be watching her debut

[Clyde Frazier]

I doubt it. I haven't heard anything about this prior to now and I'm pretty tapped into media. I think she's going to be an after thought sooner than later.

People act like there’s never been wnba superstars before. The point is that it’s still the wnba and lack of support of the league will never change.

She should be a wnba superstar. That’s her ceiling

Weird to make a blanket statement when you have no way of knowing what the future holds. Viewership is still increasing over the last 2 years so it's trending in the right direction.

[dockingsched]

I’ll be watching her debut over nba tonight.

[ChiTownHero1992]

Before I answer. I have a question on how "ratings" work? If I tune into a game for 5-10 minutes just to catch the end of something does that count towards the ratings? Or if I channel flip and watch multiple games trying to keep up on scores but not watch commercials does it count towards all of them? If so then yes I do believe Clark's debut would be higher than tonight's games because I believe everyone will be "looking in" on Clark's scoring, etc but not necessarily watching that game

[wojoaderge]

It will definitely outdraw the NBA games in my household

[sikma42]

I’ll be watching it over the NBA playoffs


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[Hoop Hunter]

I'm DVRing both. Will switch back and forth, not missing a second of either game. If Clark wasn't on the Indiana Fever, my hometown team, I probably won't care.

[Potential]

I'll obviously be watching my precious NBA. But Caitlin game today will probably get more ratings than both NBA games combined. It feels like she's more popular than the entire NBA. Even everyone on this first page will be watching it over the NBA

[Michael Bradley]

From Sports Media Watch:

NBA playoff games were averaging a 1.9 rating and 3.50 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, TNT/truTV and NBA TV through Sunday, down 9% and 10% respectively from the same point last year (2.1, 3.90M).

NBA playoff numbers are down but still drawing between 3-5 million per game. The WNBA averaged 505k viewers last season. The WNBA Finals averaged 728k last season. Tonight's game surpassing 1 million would be a great accomplishment for the league, but expecting them to beat the NBA playoffs (much less the Knicks in the NBA playoffs) is not happening.

[TwitterFingers]

I voted yes. She’s still a novelty.

[MrBigShot]

Hell no. Two game 5s involving the with the knicks in one, and defending champs and anthony edwards in the other?

I'm sure lots of people will watch the highlights and clips will be all over social media though.