If you read this, you probably know who Paige Bueckers is. Perhaps you are also familiar with Lauren Betts, Maddie Booker and Milaysia Fulwiley.
But Meg Aronowitz, a senior vice -president of production for ESPN and the Point Person of the company for his women’s basketball reporting, cannot afford to give a similar assumption. When the last four games of the women were broadcast on Friday (7 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. etc.), she and her ESPN colleagues, at least partially, have to meet the informal viewer who could watch only one or two women’s basketball races every year.
“This is the part of the tournament where we should definitely remind ourselves that this is a whole new audience that comes to us,” said Aronowitz. “I know that that sounds very much TV cliché, but we have to teach them who these stars are. I tell my people – repeat your best things. New viewers vote in every round and we have to make us give people a reason to come back for the title game on Sunday.”
We have reached the most interesting part of this tournament for a media-centric study. Why? Because of last year’s bijter viewer. ESPN leaders know that it will be impossible to duplicate the last four viewers of a year ago – and that is a direct consequence of Caitlin Clark that is not in this tournament. Iowa’s victory over UConn in the national semi -final established a then new record for the most viewed women’s basketball game in history with an average of 14.2 million viewers. It was eventually covered by the 18.9 million viewers who viewed the title match between Iowa and South Carolina. Yes, there are many popular players in women’s basketball, but only one viewers of Eenhoorn – that child from Iowa with an unlimited reach.
But this year’s figures present data points that speak of the growth of Women’s College Basketball Writ great. The Elite Eight matches were on average 2.9 million viewers, the second most viewed elite eight round on record, only behind the Clark-Voordrenkt (6.2 million viewers) figures from last year. Elite Eight games in 2025 rose by 34 percent compared to 2023. ESPN said that four of the top 10 elite broadcast eight games this year, including:
• LSU-Ucla (3.4 million viewers, no. Elite Eight Game All Time)
• Duke-SC (3.1 million, no. 4)
• UConn-USC (3.0 million, no. 6)
• TCU-Texas (2.3 million, no. 9)
The Sweet 16-round was on average 1.7 million viewers in the networks of ESPN, the second most viewed Sweet 16 on record behind last year (which an average of 2.4 million viewers) and an increase of 39 percent compared to 2023. This year, four of the top 10 Sweet 16 matches of all time, including 2.9 million for TENNEN! Dame-TCU (No. 4).
The second round of the Women’s Tournament was an average of 982,000 viewers, the second most viewed second round on record behind the 1.4 million viewers average last year. It rose by 60 percent compared to 2023.
The first round of the Women’s Tournament was on average 367,000 viewers. That is 22 percent lower than 471,000 last year (as expected without Clark) but 43 percent of 2023 an increase of 43 percent.
On the way to the last four, all competitions have an average of 967,000 viewers, an increase of 47 percent compared to 2023.
“People came to the last four of the women last year because they wanted to see what Caitlin Clark would do,” said Aronowitz. “But it was not only the Iowa games that were the assessment. The entire tournament was assessed for us, and it is our job to ensure that we continue to tell the stories of the teams and these student athletes and give people a reason to linger.”
ESPN will focus a ton on Bueckers this weekend because stars attract people. The UConnster had 40 points in the Sweet 16 win over Oklahoma and 31 points against USC on Monday. She is on average 29 points per match in the tournament.
We will never know, given the devastating ACL injury to USC star Juju Watkins, but you can imagine that the Elite Eight game with a healthy Watkins and Bueckers may have become the most viewed Elite Eight game in history.
“Everyone is talking about Paige,” said Aronowitz. “They are not” paige bueckers. ” It’s just “Paige.” If you come to that point where you are only first name, then you, wow, start to pay attention.
(For fans of Watkins, Aronowitz said that ESPN’s ladies’ basketball group will make a focus to document her return. Aronowitz said: “We are going to document her journey to recovery and we can’t wait until there is a time when she has a spring in her step and she is back on the field and we can recover and we can recover and we can recover.”
Because ESPN has seen more success with the last four of the women, the investment in technology is increasing. Aronowitz said that the last four of this year will be in High Dynamic Range (HDR), a first for the women’s game. The production has a total of 45 cameras, including more super slow-mo and high-frame rate cameras than ever before.
These are all signs of growth. The interesting song for me will be how the last four and title game does not keep by 2023, but the title game of 2022, which we can call the “PTC era” (prior to Caitlin). That title game-a 64-49 South Carolina victory over Bueckers and UConn-Medal average 4.85 million viewers. At the time it was the most viewed women’s title game since 2004, and the fourth largest audience to view a women’s championships since 1996. The UConn-Stanford National Semifinal in 2022 attracted 3.23 million viewers, the most viewed women’s and half-final game in the PTC era since 2012.
These are the numbers to beat – and I think this last four and the championship game will do it comfortably.
(Photo: Alika Jenner / Getty images)