Unrivaled Debuts With Modest Ratings on TNT

Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, is off to a modest start with its television audience.

The two games on opening night averaged 313,000 and 311,000 viewers across TNT and truTV, respectively. Viewership peaked with 364,000 viewers from 8:15–8:30 p.m. ET. It was the most-watched women’s basketball game on TNT, the network said. Every Unrivaled game also streams on Max, but those numbers aren’t included in the viewership totals.

The numbers are far below what the WNBA registered in 2024, with an average of 1.19 million viewers on ESPN in the regular season. But much of last season’s viewership boom can be attributed to Caitlin Clark, whose Indiana Fever played in a large majority of the most-viewed games. The year before Clark joined the WNBA, it averaged 505,000 viewers on ABC, ESPN, and CBS in the 2023 regular season.

Unrivaled executives set expectations out of the gate.

“We don’t expect to go get the same numbers the WNBA does,” league president Alex Bazzell told Front Office Sports the week before the first game. “We’re just trying to deliver a great product, which I know we can do.”

Unrivaled began its first season Friday night airing on TNT. Coverage continued Saturday afternoon on truTV, and opening weekend wrapped Monday night back on TNT. The league avoided major NBA matchups Friday and just in time for the NFL on Saturday, but went up against the College Football Playoff national championship Monday evening.

The first Friday night matchup was particularly intense and fast-paced on top of the intrigue it already received for being the league’s first-ever game. The fourth quarter, which has a set score instead of time limit, featured a comeback and game-winning three-pointer by the Lunar Owls.

Perhaps the most fair comparison for Unrivaled is the first season of the WNBA airing on Ion. Both have tried to make appointment viewing on Friday nights. During the 2023 season—its first as a WNBA partner—Ion averaged about 288,000 viewers. That number rose to 670,000 average viewers in 2024 when Clark entered the league.

Unrivaled made an aggressive play to woo Clark ahead of its South Florida debut, but she eventually declined their seven-figure offer.