It’s a good time to be Sara Gaiero. Responsible for strategic oversight and management of ESPN’s NCAA women’s basketball coverage, Gaiero presides over a property with massive viewership momentum. And her enthusiasm is as palpable as that of USC star JuJu Watkins seeing no defenders in front of her in the open court.
Two of the four most-watched regular-season women’s college basketball games since 1999 have happened this month, including Caitlin Clark and Iowa’s win over Ohio State (which drew 3.39 million viewers on Fox) and Iowa’s win over Nebraska in the Big Ten tournament final (which averaged 3.02 million viewers on CBS). Two other high-profile women’s games on March 10 also drew tremendous viewership in the non-Clark category: ESPN averaged 1.96 million viewers for a feisty South Carolina-LSU matchup and 1.44 million viewers for USC’s win over Stanford. Sports Media Watch said that day was the largest women’s regular-season audience on the ESPN networks since 2010.
Overall, the season-long ratings story was sensational. ESPN platforms aired 13 games that surpassed 500,000 viewers, the most on record in a regular season. Games on ABC and ESPN have averaged 476,000 viewers in 2023-24, the most-watched regular season on ESPN platforms since 2008-09. Fox, NBC, CBS and the Big Ten Network also experienced growth.
“This moment is different,” said ESPN’s Holly Rowe, assigned to cover Clark throughout the tournament. “The public interest in (Clark) is epic. …I don’t think I have ever seen such interest in a player. But then there are other storylines and players who are generating as much excitement.”
Gaiero, who previously oversaw the network’s WNBA coverage, said that other ESPN properties, from SportsCenter to digital and social media entities, are now coming to her staff to request women’s basketball content. That is a sea change.
“Honestly, four years ago when I was suggesting to my colleagues that we should talk about the WNBA and cover those stories from the Wubble,” Gaiero said of the 2020 season that was played entirely in Bradenton, Fla., due to the coronavirus pandemic , “there was a lot of pushing and negotiations from me and a lot of convincing people that this is a great story to tell. Now people are coming to me and saying, ‘Hey, what do you guys have on Caitlin Clark, (Stanford’s) Cameron Brink, JuJu Watkins and others?’ …It’s almost a reverse.”
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