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Over the last five years, the WNBA All-Star game has served as a marker of the league’s rise in cultural relevance.
The weekend, which was at one point an uninspired marker of the midway point in the season, has evolved into a can’t-miss event, complete with hard-to-get-in parties, top-tier sponsor activations, and now, Good Morning America. For the first time, the most popular morning show in the country will broadcast live from WNBA All-Star weekend.
“We’ve seen the All-Star game over the last handful of years become this big event in sports pop culture and the landscape of big summer events,” ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Ryan Ruocco told Front Office Sports. “When GMA goes somewhere, it’s validating and has this verifying effect on wherever they are. It signals ‘this is a big deal’ because GMA is there.”
The broadcast will go live from Indianapolis on Friday morning with co-anchor Robin Roberts on site, and George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan back in the New York studios.
The show is only taken on the road a few times a year, executive producer Simone Swink told FOS, and WNBA All-Star is the first road production since moving to its new Hudson Square studios.
Conversations about producing a live broadcast from WNBA All-Star weekend began about six months ago.
The two-hour broadcast will require between 15 and 30 technical employees to travel to produce the show, which will feature live interviews with All-Stars like Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, and Paige Bueckers. Several members of the Indiana Fever are expected to join Roberts, but two-time All-Star Caitlin Clark has not yet been officially confirmed.
ESPN talent Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike will also join Roberts around 7:30 a.m. of the broadcast. Live performances from rappers G-Eazy and BIA will also be included in the morning show.
“It’s our 50th year,” Swink said. “So, we’re trying to find different ways to celebrate [the show] by reminding people where we come from and where we’re going.”
ESPN will air the 3-point contest and skills challenge on Friday night, while Saturday’s game will be on ABC in primetime for the third straight year.
In 2021 the All-Star game averaged 481,000 viewers. The following year, that number rose by half a million. The 2023 WNBA All-Star game was the most watched in 16 years with an average viewership of 850,000.
Last year’s All-Star game viewership skyrocketed with Clark’s arrival, averaging 3.4 million viewers, the largest broadcast audience for a WNBA All-Star game ever. The game featured WNBA All-Stars against the Olympic team. This year, Clark and Collier were named captains after leading in the fan vote. They selected their teams from a pool of All-Star starters and reserves last week.
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