NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. delivered record ratings for the women's FIBA World Cup on TNT, with an average of 1.2 million people watching the Americans beat France in Sunday's gold medal game in Germany.
It was the third most-watched women's World Cup game and it peaked at 1.5 million viewers. The top two also came from this year's tournament, which ended Sunday. The title game went up against the opening weekend of the NFL season and the U.S. Open men's final.
“It’s a little bit of the planets aligning,” said Craig Barry, executive vice president and chief content officer for TNT Sports. “It's not just this great FIBA World Cup tournament, but women's sports coming into the spotlight the last three or four years.”
The WNBA — which paused its season so players could participate in the World Cup — has drawn huge ratings this season, thanks in no small part to Caitlin Clark's star power and devoted fan base.
The U.S. had a roster of WNBA stars including Clark, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart and Angel Reese.
The Americans' three-point win over Italy drew the highest rating of the tournament, with 1.3 million average viewers and a peak of 1.7 million. The games were also shown on HBO Max, and the streaming service had its four most-watched women’s basketball games.
Ratings for the Americans' quarterfinal win over Hungary that started at 5:30 a.m. EDT weren't available, according to the network, because of the early start time.
Before this World Cup, the best ratings for a tournament game came in the 2022 gold medal contest between the U.S. and China that drew 446,000 viewers on ESPN.
TNT announcers called the games remotely from the U.S., with sideline reporter Allie LaForce providing reports from Berlin. The network also had a studio show. This was the first time that TNT had the rights to the women's World Cup; the network also has the men's tournament next year.
“We take a lot of pride in putting resources, assets, personnel around things,” Barry said. “The story isn’t just Team USA. It's who are the teams you love, who are the teams you love to beat. How does that come together? For two weeks, getting up really early in the morning, putting this together, the reward is the five highest-rated World Cup games ever.”
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