• Loading stock data...
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Stephen A. Smith vs Clay Travis at Tuned In on September 16 in NYC. Don’t miss it. Buy tickets now!

ESPN’s WNBA Coverage Mirrors the League’s Stunning Growth

ESPN is 28 years into its pioneering coverage of the WNBA. The road was twisty, but the network has hit its stride and is now turning eyes toward the future.

Apr 14, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Paige Bueckers is interviewed by ESPN after being selected with the number one overall pick to the Dallas Wings in the 2025 WNBA Draft at The Shed at Hudson Yards
Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images
Palestinian flags
Exclusive

MLS Says Columbus Crew Fans Can Fly Palestinian Flag After Two-Year Ban

MLS has banned Israeli and Palestinian flags since October 2023.
Read Now
August 19, 2025 |

At the Shed in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, cameras flashed as a throng of media pushed mini-mics into the faces of a line of WNBA hopefuls. Reporters inquired not only about their pro hopes, but also which designer they wore while walking across the orange carpet—the league’s very own version of the Met Gala. Outside, a crowd of people clamored to capture a clip of eventual No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers in a custom Coach look. 

The frenzy at 2025’s WNBA draft is a testament to how far WNBA coverage has come—a path charted by ESPN as it enters its 29th consecutive season broadcasting the league. The network’s desk had the best view of the fashion show as WNBA Countdown went live from the draft. 

“I don’t think we stand still in our coverage of women’s sports at ESPN,” reporter and commentator Holly Rowe tells Front Office Sports. 

The WNBA’s popularity has exploded since the network first began its coverage with the league’s inaugural season.

ESPN’s very first WNBA broadcast was June 23, 1997, when the Utah Starzz—now the Las Vegas Aces—beat the Los Angeles Sparks 102–89. Good Morning America host Robin Roberts and UConn coach Geno Auriemma were on the call. It was long enough ago that Auriemma, who is fresh off winning his 12th NCAA championship, had just one title to his name. 

The first televised WNBA draft was in 2001 on ESPN2 from the NBA Entertainment Studios in Secaucus, N.J. Lauren Jackson—now a two-time WNBA champion and Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member—was selected with the No. 1 pick by the Seattle Storm that year. 

When Jackson entered the league, ESPN’s game broadcasts increased from 13 games to 22. This year marks the most broadcasts ever on ESPN platforms with 26. On May 4, ESPN will air the first nationally televised exhibition game in WNBA history when the Indiana Fever play the Brazil women’s national team in Iowa City. 


“It’s been the last three years where you’ve seen a significant amount of growth outside of our lanes,” Rebecca Lobo, who began her broadcasting career at ESPN in 2004, tells FOS. “In that SportsCenter, Get Up, First Take, all the other properties at ESPN. I don’t know if anyone tracks the minutes that have been spent talking about women’s basketball, but the difference in the last two and a half years has been significant.” 

The broadcasts are now anchored by a highly recognizable and regarded trio: Lobo, Rowe, and Ryan Ruocco, who linked up in 2013. The three have, over the course of 12 years, worked to become ESPN’s A eam on WNBA broadcasts. 

Apr 14, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Saniya Rivers on the orange carpet before the 2025 WNBA Draft at The Shed at Hudson Yards
Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images

They are constantly anticipating what the other needs, finishing one another’s sentences and, in the words of Rowe, allowing “the ball to move.” During broadcasts it might look like a hand signal across the court from Ruocco to Rowe, or a thumbs-up from Lobo after hearing her partner drop one of his iconic lines live. That kind of chemistry takes time to develop, but with the very best teams, it’s innate. 

“Brittney Griner’s rookie year,” Ruocco says about their first broadcast together. 

“Was that the Rebecca shot in the butt year?” Rowe replies. 

“No,” Ruocco responds as the three break into unanimous, unfiltered laughter. 

(The infamous “shot in the butt” was a steroid shot in Lobo’s arm to help improve her vocal cords the morning of a game. It was a tip she got from Ruocco.)

Collectively, Lobo, Ruocco, and Rowe have seen ESPN’s WNBA coverage through all of its iterations. Lobo and Ruocco both credit Rowe—the WNBA coverage veteran among them—for championing for more support. When Rowe pauses to reflect on the evolution of coverage from 1997 to 2025, it’s impossible not to notice her look of vindication for the years of pushing a product she adamantly believes deserved more attention and time. 

She points to a moment of Sabrina Ionescu’s career history to emphasize what she means when she says women’s basketball deserved more. When Ionescu broke the all-time scoring record at Oregon in 2020, Rowe was stewing about how ESPN had handled the moment. 

“Why is this not a bigger story?” Rowe asked herself out loud while lying in bed. 

After seeing Kobe Bryant tweet the goat emoji following Ionescu’s record-breaking performance, Rowe sent an email at 2 a.m. to her bosses at the network. “If Kobe is tweeting about this woman, why aren’t we putting her on our air?” she wrote.


Some coverage areas improved faster than others.

Broadcasts of women’s basketball, for instance, were staffed by less experienced people, which also underscored lower prioritization of the sport. Lobo recalls ESPN’s women’s college basketball broadcasts in the early 2000s serving as a “training ground” for up-and-coming producers and talent attempting to get on NBA productions. The best moved on within a year, contributing to a mentality that women’s coverage wasn’t as important. Dedicated production executives, lead producers, and talent were a revolving door. 

New York, NY - April 14, 2025 - The Shed: Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and Andraya Carter during the 2025 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm
Allen Kee/ESPN Images)

Talent like Rowe as well as some executives were pushing for change, including more individual programming like studio shows, previews for the WNBA Finals, and other lead-in coverage. But another major catalyst of the league’s growth in the past five years hasn’t come from inside the network.

“I remember distinctly getting a call from a sales rep [in 2021] on the ESPN side saying, ‘Carol, we have Google here and they’re not going to spend a dime on the NBA or the WNBA unless they see 25 games in the regular season. Can you add more games?’” says Carol Stiff, former VP of women’s sports programming and acquisitions, and current president of the Women’s Sports Network. “I’ll do it in a heartbeat. I’ve been wanting this for years. Until sales and advertisers spend, nothing will happen.” 

The six extra games during the WNBA’s 25th anniversary season were added with ease, Stiff says.

Advertising dollars still hold a massive amount of sway over the WNBA’s future. “Women’s sports is a business, not a charity,” Stiff adds. “Advertisers are holding the cards for women’s sports’ future, for all women’s sports.” 


When Hilary Guy—ESPN’s VP of production for WNBA Studio and NBA Studio—considers what success looks like for their women’s basketball coverage going forward, it doesn’t necessarily mean emulating exactly what they’re doing on the men’s side. She sees pockets where they can veer from the norms of a typical broadcast and lean in to new ideas and concepts—such as the WNBA’s orange carpet at the draft. 

WNBA Countdown—which is hosted by ESPN’s very own Big Three as Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, and Andraya Carter have been admiringly referred to by fans on social media—is a prime example. The show has also become a staple in the network’s postseason programming, airing through the entirety of the WNBA playoffs. They’ve also begun airing special programming like their live WNBA Free Agency Special, which started in 2022. 

New York, NY - April 14, 2025 - The Shed: Chiney Ogwumike on the set of WNBA Countdown during the 2025 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm
Allen Kee/ESPN Images)

One show fans have been begging for on social media is a WNBA counterpart to ESPN’s NBA Today. When asked whether a WNBA Today show could stand alone, Guy was careful not to give too much away but did emphatically say, “Yes, it could.”

“Lots of plans in the works,” Guy says. “I can’t reveal all right now. We will at some point be announcing our plans for the full season and they are very exciting. But I will say from an NBA Today perspective, which I also oversee, we have a WNBA Today segment that we do all the time, and I only see that growing within that show itself. There’s more on the horizon as well.” 

Rising ratings have only helped. The 2024 season was the most-watched season on ESPN platforms ever, averaging 1.2 million viewers, up 155% from 2023. And throughout the last 10 years, ESPN’s WNBA draft ratings have steadily improved as well, leading up to the 2024 draft. The nearly 2.5 million people who tuned in as Caitlin Clark was selected No. 1 overall by the Fever—up 328% from 2023, making it the most-viewed WNBA draft ever—were a precursor to the eyes that would show up to watch her rookie season. 

Viewership for the 2025 draft as UConn star Paige Bueckers was selected No. 1 by the Dallas Wings dipped to 1.25 million Still, it was the second-most-watched WNBA draft of all time, which many took to indicate the Caitlin Clark Effect was not a one-off, but rather the mark of the league’s proper arrival in the mainstream. 


For Lobo and Rowe, who have seen the evolution of ESPN’s coverage since the very beginning, and others such as Carter and Ogwumike, who went from being stars on the court to conduits of the game’s stories, the elation over women’s basketball’s visibility is palpable. 

But for all of them, the work to establish an even stronger foothold in the mainstream sports entertainment zeitgeist is never finished. 

“I’m excited about everything that’s to come,” Ogwumike tells FOS. “There’s been a lot of rumblings about, ‘We need a women’s show,’ something daily. To me, that’s been the biggest goal of mine. Things happen in the WNBA and women’s college basketball. Making sure we have a platform to story-tell those moments and also our own platform so we can give our own history. 

“Having a show like that would show that we’ve arrived.” 

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

Inside ESPN’s ‘Industry Shaping’ DTC Plan, What’s at Stake

Many bundle offers and opaque metrics mark the high-profile launch.

Sophie Cunningham Receives 3rd WNBA Fine for Criticizing Refs

This is Cunningham’s third fine in about a month.

Rich Eisen Will Host More SportsCenters After Standout Return

Eisen’s nostalgia-oriented Monday SportsCenter drew rave reviews.
Bay FC

Bay FC Set to Break NWSL Attendance Record in San Francisco

NWSL players have often resisted playing at baseball stadiums.

Featured Today

Sep 8, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants running back Eric Gray (20) returns a kickoff against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half at MetLife Stadium.

‘Fauxbacks’ Throw Back to a Retro Uniform That Never Existed

Many throwback jerseys are brand-new designs or “Franken-Unis.”
August 17, 2025

‘Labubu Gang’: The Creepy-Cute Dolls Sweeping Pro Sports

The creepy-cute doll is the hottest collectible—and fashion statement.
Middle Tennessee wide receiver Cam'ron Lacy (86) catches a pass and carries the ball during the season final home football game against New Mexico State on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.
August 15, 2025

How Middle Tennessee State Added $668,000 to Its NIL Budget

The Blue Raiders are creating a new blueprint for cutting costs.
Bridgewater American 12U Little League player Micah Poulter holds a District 7 pin during a send-off rally to the New England regional tournament in Bristol, Connecticut, from Legion Field on Friday, August 2, 2024.
August 14, 2025

Inside the Little League World Series Pin Trade

The rare little collectibles fuel a frenzy in Williamsport each summer.
Kyle Busch talks with Nexstar Media Group, Wednesday February 14, 2024 during Daytona 500 Media Day at Daytona International Speedway

$6.2B Nexstar-Tegna Deal Could Create Local Sports Juggernaut

CW parent company Nexstar looks to acquire its rival in a major deal.
Padraig Harrington is interviewed by the Golf Channel on the 18th green after the final round of the TimberTech Championship at The Old Course at Broken Sound on Sunday, November 5, 2023, in Boca Raton, FL.
August 14, 2025

From Golf to EPL, Versant Targets Deals After NBCU Split

The USGA’s media-rights extension included NBCU and the spin-off Versant.
August 15, 2025

NFL Preseason Week 1 Delivers Record Audience for NFL Network

The channel averaged 2.1 million viewers for its eight live telecasts.
Sponsored

Building A Pro League From Scratch

Front Office Sports and Gainbridge® spotlight what it takes to build a professional women’s soccer league.
Jul 19, 2025; New Orleans, Louisiana, UNITED STATES; Dan Ige (red gloves) fights against Patricio Pitbull (blue gloves) during UFC 318 at Smoothie King Center.
August 14, 2025

Why Paramount Overpaid for UFC Media Rights

Analysts and experts agree the deal is a huge win for UFC.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during the Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2024 Enshrinees Gold Jacket Dinner at the Canton Civic Center, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024.
exclusive
August 13, 2025

Roger Goodell Addresses ESPN Employees After NFL Deal

Triple H was on the call, too.
Jan 12, 2025; Orchard Park, New York, USA; CBS Sports field reporter Tracy Wolfson interviews Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) following a win over the Denver Broncos in an AFC wild card game at Highmark Stadium.
August 12, 2025

CBS Sports Chief on Paramount Owners: ‘They Value Sports’

Network officials cite the UFC deal as immediate proof of corporate priorities.
August 12, 2025

NBA Doubles Down on MLK Day Amid NFL Christmas Competition

NBC also announced the first NBA games that will be exclusively streamed.