Colin Cowherd Gets Blunt With Caitlin Clark 'Beach' Metaphor Amid WNBA Ratings Drop

A June 11 article from USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt conveyed just how catastrophic Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark's left quad strain injury (which has caused her to miss her team's past five games) has been not only for the Fever but for the entire WNBA.

"The league's TV ratings have declined with Clark sidelined," Zillgitt wrote. He then added, "Nationally televised WNBA viewership is down 55% since her injury, according to Nielsen.

"Fever national TV games are down 53% since Clark's injury – 1,810,000 average viewers before her injury and 847,000 viewers since her injury for Fever national TV games," Zillgitt continued.

These are truly staggering statistics about how much Clark not on the court negatively impacts the WNBA. And sports media personality Colin Cowherd packaged this sentiment nicely during a June 12 episode of The Herd w/ Colin Cowherd.

"Hopefully, this is good news that she's coming back, and it's a reminder: Ladies of the WNBA, she is the rising tide," Cowherd said, per an X post from the show's account. He later added, "She is essentially the sun at the beach. If she's not out, nobody else is."

Cowherd later expanded on this sentiment by saying, "This is kind of unprecedented territory... generally, there is production behind popularity, to some degree. And Caitlin is great. But like, it's time to get over the angst. She has changed the league.

"She doesn't show up, it's like the sun going behind a cloud at the beach. It's not the same environment. You've just got to come to terms with it."