With the Olympic Break Over, Caitlin Clark is Back to What She Does Best: Shattering TV Ratings Records

Jack Esten. Getty Images.

There are certain cultural touchstone moments that unite all of humanity. That gather people together for the shared experience of witnessing history. JFK's funeral. The first moon landing. Roots. The finale of MASH. Janet Jackson's nip slip. Will Smith bitch-slapping Chris Rock. 

And to this list of unmissable events is any WNBA game involving this compelling figure:

Caitlin Clark is the massive star whose orbit we've all been drawn into. And all the WNBA's break for the Olympics - which obviously did not involve her for some inexplicable reason - did was make the world more interested in seeing her. The numbers do not lie:

Source - Sunday’s Storm-Fever WNBA regular season game averaged 2.23 million viewers on ABC, marking the fifth-largest WNBA audience since 2001 (fourth if one excludes the WNBA Draft). Only the WNBA All-Star Game (3.44M), WNBA Draft (2.45M) and two meetings of Clark’s Fever and Angel Reese’s Sky (2.30 and 2.25 million) averaged more viewers. 

Indiana’s win was the 19th game window and 20th telecast this season to top the million viewer mark, extending a league record. Of those, all-but-two have featured Clark and the Fever.

The game was the most-watched in the history of the Seattle Storm, a franchise in its 25th season that has won four WNBA titles. The previous high was 1.25 million for a 2002 playoff game against the Sparks on NBC.

For the weekend, only the Saints-49ers NFL preseason game on FOX averaged more viewers.

This is what it looked like in graphic form as of a few days ago. Except since then she's added to her total of million-plus viewer games:

Which begs several questions. Beginning with why Team USA didn't want the attention having Clark on the team would've guaranteed them. It's not like they were a tree falling in the woods as it is. But the more eyeballs on the screen, the greater the glory and the more you grow your program. Here they had the greatest TV ratings draw since every show in the '80s and '90s used to shoehorn Heather Locklear into the cast:

Advertisement

:

… and they chose to leave her sitting in Indiana for a month cooling her heels. And resting up. And plotting her revenge. 

But the biggest question remains why the WNBA veterans like Skylar Diggins resent her so much. I mean, did they like it better when they were laboring in obscurity? Drawing TV rating like LIV Golf and not being part of the national conversation? Do they hate attention? Publicity? Advertising revenue? Because in an It's a Wonderful Life scenario where Caitlin Clark had never been born, that's exactly what their existence would still be. If she wasn't so good at basketball, or chose some other life like taking up another sport, or starting a family and getting a job like the rest of us losers, the WNBA would still be a national punchline:

… instead of a huge part of the national conversation.

A rising tide lifts all boats. And your tide is rising thanks to Hurricane Caitlin making landfall in your league. I won't add, "So quit hating on her." Because that jealously and resentment directed at her only makes her that much more fun to watch. All I ask is that you appreciate how she's in the process of making your whole league worth watching. And financially viable for the first time ever. You're welcome.