LSU-Iowa Women’s March Madness Final Sets Viewership Record

By R. Thomas Umstead
published

Sunday’s game draws nearly 10 million viewers

LSU vs. Iowa in 2023 NCAA women's basketball title game
A record 9.9 million viewers watch LSU take down Iowa in the NCAA women’s national title game. (Image credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Sunday’s women’s NCAA college basketball championship game between the LSU Tigers and Iowa Hawkeyes drew a record 9.9 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and its digital services, according to Nielsen Fast National numbers.  

The game, in which LSU won its first women’s March Madness, was up 103 percent higher in viewership than last year’s South Carolina-Connecticut finals. 

The game follows an NCAA women’s tournament Final Four round that set ratings records for ESPN. The cable sports networks averaged 4.5 million viewers for its two March 31 semifinal round games, the most viewed women’s Final Four in network history. 

The Iowa-South Carolina game drew 5.5 million viewers — an ESPN record for a semi-final game — while the LSU-Virginia Tech game averaged 3.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen. 

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R. Thomas Umstead
R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.