What lesson should networks take from the success ESPN had with the women’s NCAA Tournament? There are plenty, but watching South Carolina top Iowa on Sunday afternoon, one stood out to me above the others. We don’t have to be so precious about prime time.
On weekdays, waiting until those late dinner hours makes sense. You don’t want to tip a championship game off on a Tuesday when the majority of Americans are still stuck in traffic or are yet to leave the office, but why do we follow the same rule on weekends?
Ratings for Sunday’s game dwarfed every other women’s basketball game played this century. That’s not a surprise. It’s been happening throughout the entire tournament. It also beat every World Series game since 2019, every NBA Finals game since 2017, every Daytona 500 since 2006 and every Masters final round since 2001.
Prime time is not inherently better placement for an event. Day and circumstance has to be taken into account. It might have seemed silly at first glance that a championship game featuring the best team against the best player started at 3 pm Eastern time, but it paid off. And think about the strategy involved here. It was a long-term play.
Caitlin Clark is a phenomenon. Girls and women, who may not have been interested in basketball before, followed her every move. Men, who had never seen a women’s game, tuned in to watch her sink shots from deeper than they thought possible. It was a brilliant move by ESPN and ABC to put her last college basketball game on at a time that was not prohibitive to watching with kids.
The women’s basketball tournament is more valuable than its TV rights suggest. The NCAA doesn’t seem to get that, but ESPN does. It built a studio show with more dynamic personalities and better chemistry than what CBS and TBS delivered for the men’s tournament. Everyone, even South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, noticed. ESPN went all out to deliver a top tier product. That’s why I have to believe there was a strategy for every decision the company made.
Women’s basketball has never been more popular than it is right now, but ESPN hopes this current peak is only temporary and current ratings highs will someday be eclipsed. There won’t be a Caitlin Clark to carry ratings next season, so it has to nurture the audience. Tipping off the title game at 3 pm gives kids and their parents a chance to create a memory and maybe a family tradition together.
It was also smart not to try to compete with the second night of Wrestlemania XL. The advantage of broadcast television likely would have meant more viewers for the women’s national championship game, but look at Saturday night on social media. The men’s Final Four games were competing for space and minds with the first night of Wrestlemania.
CBS, TBS, and the NCAA take the popularity of the men’s tournament for granted. They either don’t think critically each year about what the path to most success is or they assume college basketball is still what it was 30 years ago.
ESPN isn’t so naive. It also recognizes that the women’s tournament doesn’t have the luxury of being top of mind when sports fans hear the words “Final Four.” I applaud everyone involved for recognizing potential stumbling blocks on the path to new heights.
Finally, let’s talk about what we already know. People like to watch sports on weekday afternoons. Need proof? Look at the ratings for any Saturday or Sunday from the end of August until the end of January.
Yes, football is playing on a different plane. The scarcity makes it our national obsession, but the pattern is pretty clear. People will build their schedules around games that matter to them.
Lessons are great, but they aren’t valuable if you don’t take action. So, what can the sports media learn and do with this information? How about we start with World Series, NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals?
We already put weekend playoff games in baseball, basketball and hockey on during the afternoon hours. Why not do the same with the championship rounds? I love the NBA, but even I will admit there is a viewership problem right now. Maybe starting at least one game of the sport’s ultimate event before 9:30 pm would help. At the very least, it would help create new fans.
Maybe there is more that can be done. Perhaps pushing the start of the Super Bowl up by an hour or moving the NFL Draft back to a weekend afternoon event. I am not sure what all makes sense. That’s for the networks to decide.
What I do know is that the rules of television have changed. We say it all the time. Prime time still has a ton of meaning and carries a ton of weight on weekdays. On weekends though, we can afford to re-think the way we have always done things. ABC’s success with South Carolina’s big win on Sunday proves it.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
