Jemele Hill has heard all the Caitlin Clark narratives.
The former ESPN star has constantly been pinged about Clark’s popularity and stardom, of which there is no debating. However, many fans have been debating how successful the WNBA can be outside of Clark.
How will the WNBA fare when the Indiana Fever aren’t drawing big TV ratings, because they are out of the playoffs? Are other players, like Angel Reese or Gabby Williams, big-time TV ratings draws, too?
We now know our answer.
Game 1 of the 2026 WNBA Finals averaged 2.1 million viewers. It’s the most-watched WNBA Finals Game 1 in history.
Hill made it clear on social media that she was happy to see that the league can post big-time ratings numbers without Clark on the floor.
Unsurprisingly, one of Clark’s fans already had a response.
“11th most watched game this season… Top-10 all involved the Indiana Fever,” one Clark fan posted.
“Not even a top ten most watched game THIS SEASON Jemele,” another shared on X.
Clark, Reese can both be huge stars
This doesn’t have to be a one or the other thing. Clark and Reese can both be big-time stars.
Richard Deitsch summed it up.
“Some of the Angel Reese things I read on this site are so spectacular dumb. Caitlin Clark is the most popular player in the WNBA. No one changes game viewership as she does. She is a viewership unicorn in sports, male or female. There’s no debating this. These are facts,” he wrote on X.
“Angel Reese is a massively popular basketball player. Literal evidence below. She crosses over beyond basketball into fashion and elsewhere. When the Dream came to Toronto, you saw plenty of Reese merch in the crowd and nobody received close to the reaction she did. Multiple things can be true. Both are immensely popular athletes. Both move the needle in different ways. Both are going to be All-WNBA players for years.”
Of course, it’d be fascinating to see how a Caitlin Clark WNBA Finals game would rate on TV.
