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Published By: Sports Desk
Last Updated: March 28, 2024, 02:30 IST
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It didn’t take long for Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes to break their women’s NCAA Tournament viewing record.
BRISTOL, Conn.: It didn’t take long for Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes to break their women’s NCAA Tournament viewing record.
The Hawkeyes’ 64-54 win over West Virginia in Monday night’s second-round game averaged 4.90 million viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen, making it the most-watched women’s tournament game ever — and excluding Final Four contests and title games.
The number of viewers exceeded the 3.23 million who watched Iowa’s first-round win over Holy Cross on Saturday on ABC.
Monday night’s game is also the most-watched NCAA Tournament game – men’s or women’s – on cable this year. The previous high was 4.09 million for Houston’s overtime win over Texas A&M Sunday night on TNT.
This was the Iowa women’s fourth game this season, and the first game on cable, where the average viewership was over 3 million. The others were on Fox, CBS and ABC.
Iowa’s Albany Regional 2 semifinal game against Colorado will be on ABC Saturday afternoon. It should attract another large audience, especially with both men’s regional finals not taking place until the evening.
According to ESPN, Sunday and Monday’s second round games averaged 1.4 million, a 121% increase over last year.
LSU’s rally over Middle Tennessee drew 2 million Sunday on ABC.
UConn’s win over Syracuse, which preceded the Iowa game on ESPN, averaged 2.1 million. Southern California’s victory over Kansas, which followed Iowa, had 1.8 million.
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AP March Madness Bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
