Caitlin Clark’s WNBA Playoff Debut Breaks NFL Sunday TV Record

The ratings are in, and it turns out people love watching Caitlin Clark play basketball. He is not playing wellWith the Fever airing on ABC at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, the WNBA had its best playoff ratings in decades.

Accordingly Watch Sports MediaDespite Clark making his postseason debut on an NFL Sunday and the game turning into a rout in the second half, the game drew an average of 1.84 million viewers.

The Sun won 93-69 in a game where Clark struggled to get anything going offensively. The AP Rookie of the Year scored 11 points on 4 of 17 shots and made just two 3-pointers. He also had a black eye.

The ratings are particularly impressive considering the circumstances, as this was the highest-rated WNBA playoff game since the 2000 WNBA Finals and the most-watched non-Finals game since 1999.

The Fever will face the Sun in Game 2 on Wednesday night. That alone should be a new record, but there’s no telling how high that number could go if Indiana can force a Game 3 at home on Friday night. After what we saw in the NCAA tournament a few months ago, there’s really no point in speculating.