Unrivaled's Disastrous TV Numbers Show Caitlin Clark Is The Only Consistent Draw In Women's Basketball

Women's basketball is bigger than Caitlin Clark, they said. The WNBA was built on the backs of black women and Clark only capitalized on what was already there, they said. We can make a league without Clark and draw the same interest, they said. 

Well, the evidence provided by Unrivaled, the women's professional 3-on-3 basketball league that doesn't feature Caitlin Clark, doesn't look good for those who made statements like the ones above. 

As OutKick reported in February, Unrivaled's TV ratings in its second year were looking quite bad as the season headed toward the home stretch. Sports Media Watch reported that Unrivaled was averaging 103,000 viewers across TNT and truTV through week three of the season as of Jan. 26, down 44 percent from the first three weeks of last year when it averaged 185,000 viewers. 

You probably missed it, but Unrivaled's season officially ended on March 4 with a team called "Mist" defeating a team called "Phantom" to win the league championship. According to the team's roster page, the Mist are led by league co-creator Breanna Stewart, purportedly one of the biggest stars in women's basketball not named Caitlin Clark. 

Mist players celebrate after winning the Unrivaled championship game against the Phantom. 

(Sam Navarro/Imagn Images)

It doesn't seem like Stewart is in the same stratosphere as Clark as far as being a television draw. Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports posted the viewership numbers for Unrivaled and bless Annie's heart, she tried her damnedest to make the numbers not look terrible. 

As OutKick has repeatedly noted, the left-wing media tends to act like cheerleaders or PR agents for things it wants to be successful. And boy oh boy do they want Unrivaled to be successful. Let's look at how Costabile tried to put the league's viewership into the spin cycle. 

• Viewership grew 79% from Opening Night to Finals (compared to 16% growth in 2025).

This is a completely irrelevant data point without noting the audience size from opening night.

• Unrivaled on TNT averaged 185k when it didn’t go head-to-head against the College Football Playoffs, NFL Playoffs, and Winter Olympics (16% off the pace from 2025).

Any more caveats you'd like to add, Annie? Even with all of those caveats, the league was STILL down year-over-year. And, surely, some of last year's numbers include games that DID go head-to-head with the College Football Playoffs or NFL playoffs. 

• Unrivaled delivered its 3rd most watched broadcast in its history with 314k viewers for its championship game (Mist vs Phantom).

Call me crazy, but having the championship game from this year lag behind last year's championship and at least one other broadcast is not good. 

Unrivaled’s second-season ratings dip offers fresh evidence that Caitlin Clark's star power drives sustained national interest in women’s hoops.

(Imagn Images)

Plus, Annie is conveniently leaving out a very important detail with all of these numbers. 

Nielsen has been changing how it counts audiences in ways that generally help sports. The data-collection company has rolled out its Big Data plus Panel measurement and expanded national out-of-home measurement, meaning more viewing in bars, restaurants, and other communal settings is being captured. 

Nielsen has promoted the updated methodology as a more accurate view of audiences, which generally benefits live sports that people often watch outside their living rooms. Nearly all sports programming has seen an increase in TV ratings since the change. Not Unrivaled, though.

• Viewership grew 35% after its first ever tour stop (Philadelphia).

Again, this is a largely irrelevant data point without the numbers prior to the tour stop. We can confidently tell you that the numbers were so bad pre-tour stop that this increase is mostly unhelpful to the fledgling league. 

We could keep going, but you get the point. Someone from Unrivaled fed a friendly "journalist" (Annie) these numbers in a way that makes them not appear to be a total disaster. Don't be fooled: they are a complete and total disaster. 

Even Awful Announcing, another left-wing media site, had to admit the obvious: "Whatever way you spin it, Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league partly owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, had a tough sophomore season." 

When Awful Announcing, another cheerleader/PR outlet for things that it likes, is saying that the numbers are bad, you know the numbers are BAD. 

Unrivaled is in a very precarious position. Front Office Sports has reported that Unrivaled’s media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery is six years and reportedly worth nine figures, but it includes an opt-out after three years (which is after next year). 

Add in the fact that Paramount is in the process of buying WBD, and it makes it even more likely the opt-out could be utilized. It's going to be hard to find a new TV partner with numbers as bad as Unrivaled. 

Caitlin Clark is probably the only thing that can save Unrivaled, and she doesn't seem interested in swooping in to save the day. 

We don't blame her.