Caitlin Clark single-handedly raised the viewership of the WNBA last season, and an NBA insider thinks a player like her is what the NBA needs to solve its ongoing problem with plummeting viewership. Despite having LeBron James and other popular basketball stars, the NBA has been suffering low viewership numbers.
On Wednesday, podcaster Bill Simmons discussed the NBA’s viewership issues, saying he’s not worried about the declining numbers because it has always been part of the league. On a recent episode of his eponymous “The Bill Simmons Show,” Simmons said that the presence of a star like the WNBA’s Caitlin Clark could boost the NBA’s ratings.
“Everybody thinks the NBA is in trouble, this is just the DNA of the league, and here’s what’s gonna happen,” Simmons said. “There’s gonna be some new—a new player comes in, some new team, some new event. It’s going to shift this. And that’s what the NBA needs right now. I don’t know what that’s going to be, but I’m gonna bet on the 80-year history of the league.”
Simmons posited that there hasn’t been a decline in interest in the NBA, but the league is currently lacking a player who captivates audiences and drives them to watch the games.
“This is an American problem,” Simmons said. “People are losing interest in America because you can follow the league without really watching it. So, the ratings are down, but I’m not sure the interest is down. What they’re missing, ironically, is what women’s college basketball with the WNBA had.
“Where Caitlin became somebody the people just wanted to watch… She’s more valuable than anyone in the NBA has because she’s the only must-watch basketball player right now other than the old guys in the NBA. So, they have to figure out—what is their unicorn moment?”
You may have heard lately that NBA ratings are down, so the league is in trouble.@BillSimmons explains why this isn’t new; it’s a cycle. And it’s also why he’s not worried about the future of the NBA. pic.twitter.com/qpKD60Ws7n
— The Ringer (@ringer) December 18, 2024
While the NBA has young stars like Anthony Edwards, Victor Wembanyama, and LaMelo Ball among others, none of them has been able to captivate fans like Caitlin Clark did for the women’s league.
Caitlin Clark improved the WNBA’s ratings in her rookie season
All of the WNBA’s seven TV partners have benefitted from Caitlin Clark’s presence. Each network has seen an increase in their viewership every time Clark featured in a game they broadcasted.
ESPN garnered 2.3 million views for their broadcast of the game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky. Meanwhile, CBS attracted 2.25 million viewers to tune in to another Fever-Sky game, and another 2.2 million viewers for the game between the Fever and the Seattle Storm.
Even the 2024 WNBA Draft that saw Caitlin Clark become the first-overall pick by the Fever had many paying close attention. It had nearly five times the last year’s draft’s number of views, which maxed out to just a number above 500,000.
Then in the 2024 regular season, Clark appeared in 20 of 23 games that had over a million viewers—a testament to the undeniable impact she had in the WNBA.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
