Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league airing on TNT Sports, experienced a predictable decline in viewership during its second week. After surpassing the 300,000 viewer mark on its opening night, the league struggled to reach 200,000 viewers in its games on Monday night. According to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, the doubleheader on Monday averaged 166,000 viewers across TNT and truTV, reflecting a 10% drop from the previous week’s doubleheader, which had 184,000 viewers.
The opener between the Lunar Owls and Vinyl at 7:30 p.m. ET drew just 134,000 viewers, while the subsequent game at 8:30 p.m. featuring the Laces and Rose saw an increase of 43%, averaging 192,000 viewers. Over the first two weeks, the league has averaged 194,000 viewers per telecast, with the average rising to 238,000 viewers when excluding games that aired solely on truTV. Interestingly, Fridays have emerged as the most successful night for the league, as last Friday’s pair of games averaged 281,000 viewers, exactly one week after its debut.
In comparison to another new league that also launched this month, TGL, Unrivaled’s start appears modest, particularly notable given that TGL features the “Tiger Woods of golf,” whereas Unrivaled lacks a standout star like Caitlin Clark in women’s basketball. Nonetheless, assessing a league’s potential success based on just two weeks of viewership can be misleading. Unrivaled has ample opportunity to expand its audience and potentially attract big names in future seasons. However, without a Clark-like spark, the league will have to focus on a more organic growth approach this season.
