Nia Warfield4/8/24

Iowa’s Final Four match-up was a slam dunk for ESPN

Caitlin Clark and the Iowa squad may have been upset by South Carolina last night, but they took home the gold for ESPN.

The #1 most-watched sports network said a record 14.2M people tuned in to Iowa's Final Four match-up against UConn Friday. It's the 45-year old network's most watched basketball game ever, and topped viewership for every World Series game last year.

To put that in perspective, ESPN first aired an NBA game in 1982, and has been airing them continuously since 2002.

The record came just days after Iowa's matchup with No. 3 LSU became the most-watched women's college bball game with 12.3M viewers.

Women’s sports are having a moment: Just over half of American adults spent some time watching or following female sports in the past year. Meanwhile, broadcast coverage has nearly 3x’d from pre-pandemic levels as more networks try to get in on the action.

+300%

14.2M viewers

The previous record?

13.5M

Game 7 of the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference finals

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The BBC has become the world’s top news website... by collapsing a little less than its competition

Press Gazette just published its annual look at the biggest news sites in the world across all languages; for the most part, it doesn’t make for particularly pretty reading.

The journalism industry publication’s latest update, which is based on estimates provided by Similarweb for May, found that 37 of the world’s 50 most visited news sites saw their reach shrink. Press Gazette highlighted that American outlets have been hit particularly hard by declining Google traffic compared to European counterparts, owing to the platform’s AI features rolling out earlier in the US.

Even the BBC, having climbed the rankings from last year to top the 2026 chart — reportedly in part thanks to Similarweb’s decision to combine the “.co.uk” and “.com” versions of the URL, given that the sites redirect to each other depending on the user’s location — showed a 1.9% decline from last year.

Last night’s Tony Awards were a curtain call for a record-smashing season on Broadway

This year’s star-studded theater awards wrapped up the highest-grossing season Broadway’s ever seen.

The 79th Annual Tony Awards - Show

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Kids these days are listening to more songs from the good old days

Music nostalgia is in full swing, and the younger listeners of today appear to be partying like it’s pre-1999.

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