The LSU-Iowa Game Had More Viewers Than NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, And World Series

by Staff Reporter

April 2, 20246 Comments

Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

The LSU-Iowa Elite 8 matchup on Monday night set an NCAA Women's Basketball ratings record with 12.3M viewers.

The 12.3M viewers topped every World Series game in 2023, the 2023 Stanley Cup, and all but one NBA Finals game in 2023. Per ESPN:

quote:
The viewership surpassed the 11.84 million who watched the 1983 NCAA championship game between Southern California and Louisiana Tech. LSU coach Kim Mulkey played for Louisiana Tech and was matched up against USC great Cheryl Miller in that game, which the Trojans won 64-58.

It was also the most watched men's or women's college basketball game ever on ESPN, more than doubling the prior largest audience.

According to ESPN, the 2002 women's national championship game between UConn and Oklahoma had the old mark at 5.68 million. ESPN's most watched men's game was the 2008 regular-season matchup between Duke and North Carolina, which drew 5.61 million.

Only one men's NCAA tournament game this year had bigger viewership: North Carolina State's win over Duke on Sunday in the men's Elite Eight on CBS averaged 15.1 million.

According to Sports Media Watch, it was the most viewed basketball game on ESPN since Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, when the Cleveland Cavaliers' victory over the Boston Celtics averaged 13.6 million.

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Filed Under: LSU Womens Basketball

6 Comments

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cajunmud•4 months

Wonder what the male/female breakdown was?

Come to LSU...be seen!

bluebuck1•4 months

Mulkey needs as much recruiting help as possible to help build a dynasty. The governor needs to stop the anti-Louisiana sports recruiting campaign, by trying to turn the basketball team pregame timing error, which resulted in their missing the national anthem, into political capital.

d2•4 months

NCAA screwed themselves by trying so hard to screw over LSU lol. No way that shouldn’t have been a final 4 matchup with a full week of anticipation.

Jabontik•4 months

wow thats amazing. Hope Angel stays one more year

BigTigerJoe•4 months

Put it on ABC, it would have hit 15 million plus.

NOLATiger163•4 months

I think there were multiple reasons Mulkey was hired, and generating interest / attention on the program was certainly one of them.

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