Notes

• Game 1 of the 2016 WNBA Finals was broadcast on ABC and had 0.5 overnight rating (597,000 viewers), which was the best since 2010.^[9][10] The 5 game 2016 Finals broadcast on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 averaged a 0.3 rating and 487,000 viewers.^[11] Average viewership in 2016 was 224,000 viewers.^[12]

• Game one of the 2015 WNBA Finals telecast on ABC, drew 571,000 viewers, up from 558,000 for game 1 in 2014.^[13] Game three of the finals drew 432,000 viewers, and game five drew 583,000, both on ESPN2.^[14][15]

• The 2014 WNBA Finals averaged 659,000 viewers across the ESPN channels, up 91% from the 2013 finals between the Minnesota Lynx and the Atlanta Dream which averaged 345,000. Overall, the 2014 playoffs averaged a 0.3 rating and 489,000 viewers on the ESPN networks, up from 0.2 and 272,000 in 2013.^[16]

• The 2013 WNBA Finals games averaged 344,000 viewers.^[17]

• Game 2 of the 2012 WNBA Finals between the Indiana Fever and Minnesota Lynx was broadcast on ESPN (games 1,3 and 4 were on ESPN2) and received 778,000 viewers and a .6 household rating. This was the highest rated WNBA broadcast on ESPN since a 1999 Western Conference Finals game between the Houston Comets and Los Angeles Sparks received 1,052,000 viewers and a 1.1 household rating.^[18][19] The average viewership for the 4 finals games in 2012 was 477,000.^[16]

Notes

• The 2009 WNBA Finals between the Mercury and Fever had the highest average ratings (548,000 viewers), since average finals ratings began being recorded in 2007.^[16]

• ESPN returned to the fold in the year 2001, broadcasting the first game with NBC airing the second and decisive game between the Los Angeles Sparks and Charlotte Sting. For NBC's final year of coverage in 2002, ESPN2 this time, broadcast the first game with NBC again covering what would become the second and ultimately decisive game. The Los Angeles Sparks' 69–66 victory over the New York Liberty on August 31, 2002, would therefore, prove to be the final broadcast of the WNBA on NBC. The league would soon thereafter, transfer the television rights^[20] to ABC/ESPN.^[21][22][23]

Notes

• The first WNBA season in 1997 concluded with what was at the time, a single championship game. The following year, the finale series into a best-of-three games series, with NBC airing the first two games and ESPN airing the decisive third game. In 1999, ESPN aired the first game of the championship series while NBC covered the following two. Come the year 2000, Lifetime temporarily assumed ESPN's role as the WNBA's cable outlet for the WNBA Championship. Like the year prior, Lifetime broadcast the first game while NBC covered the second and ultimately decisive game between the Houston Comets and New York Liberty. This marked Houston's fourth consecutive WNBA Championship.