''WNBA on CBS'' is an

American television Television is one of the Mass media in the United States, major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August ...

sports presentation show broadcast by CBS. It premiered on May 25, 2019. The consist of branding used for presentation of

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

Background

Terms of the deal

On April 22, 2019, CBS Sports Network and the WNBA struck a deal to televise 40 games in primetime and on weekends during the 2019 season. The games broadcast on CBS from local broadcasts already airing on the WNBA's streaming site, WNBA League Pass.

Production

Initially, most games were broadcast via clean feeds provided by the league and the home team's regional broadcaster. Beginning in the 2024 season, the games carried on the CBS network are now produced in-house by CBS Sports, with the clean feed productions now used solely for games on CBS Sports Network.

Schedules

The 2021 season had 100 games broadcast on national networks, including 40 on CBS networks. On June 19, 2021, CBS broadcast a WNBA game between the

Connecticut Sun The Connecticut Sun are an American professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut. The Sun compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference. The team i ...

and Chicago Sky with Lisa Byington providing the play-by-play and

Lisa Leslie Lisa Deshaun Leslie (born July 7, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player. She is formerly the head coach for Triplets (basketball), Triplets in the BIG3 professional basketball league, as well as a studio analyst for Orlando ...

providing analysis. On June 26, 2021, CBS broadcast a game between the

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference. The team was ...

and

Dallas Wings The Dallas Wings are an American professional basketball team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Wings compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team is owned by a group ...

. The remaining national broadcast schedule for the 2022 season was released in April and May 2022—including two regular season games on CBS and 38 on

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

was the first year of a two-year deal with

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

. Also in 2024, CBS Sports aired 20 regular-season games, with eight airing on CBS and 12 airing on

. For the 2025 season, CBS announced that it would be airing at least two regular season games in

prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

involving the Chicago Sky and

Indiana Fever The Indiana Fever are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Fever compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) a member of the Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference. The team was founded for ...

on June 7 and August 9.

Commentators

Play-by-play announcers

* Anne Marie Anderson *Jon Bloom *

Krista Blunk Krista Lee Blunk acts as a play-by-play broadcaster or an analyst for Pac-12 Network, Westwood One, and ESPN covering women's soccer, volleyball, softball, and basketball, and, as of November 2024, men's college basketball. In addition to the net ...

*Pat Boylan *John Brickley * Cindy Brunson * Lisa Byington *Andy Demetra *Paul Dottino *Dick Fain *Marney Gellner *Brendan Glasheen *Michael Grady *Angel Gray *Tiffany Greene *Rahshaun Haylock *Bob Heussler *Alan Horton * Jordan Kent *Tom Leander *Sloane Martin * Meghan McPeak * Jeff Munn *Jason Ross Jr. * Sean Salisbury *Matt Schumacker *Chris Shearn *Zora Stephenson *Ron Thulin

Color analysts

*Kim Adams * Debbie Antonelli * Stephen Bardo *Ashley Battle * Tully Bevilaqua *Rushia Brown * Allie Clifton *Jordan Cornette * Ros Gold-Onwude *Bria Goss * Sarah Kustok *

Nancy Lieberman Nancy Ilizabeth Lieberman (born July 1, 1958), nicknamed "Lady Magic", is an American former professional basketball player and coach in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) who is currently a broadcaster for the Oklahoma City Thun ...

*Meghan McKeown * Ann Meyers Drysdale * Mary Murphy *Lea B. Olsen * Raegan Pebley * Carolyn Peck * LaChina Robinson *Leah Secondo *

Sheryl Swoopes Sheryl Denise Swoopes (born March 25, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player. She was the first player to be signed in the WNBA, is a three-time WNBA MVP, and was named one of the league's Top 15 Players of All Time at the 2 ...

* Mike Trudell * Charli Turner Thorne *Tabitha Turner *Julianne Viani * Scott Williams * Christy Winters-Scott *Elise Woodward *Isis Young

Sideline reporters

* Patricia Babcock-McGraw * Tiffany Blackmon *Robyn Brown * Tina Cervasio *Katie Engleson *Terrika Foster-Brasby *Maggie Hale *ShaVonne Herndon *Kelsie Kasper *Nikki Kay *Kristen Lago *Meg McDonald *Dan Nolan *Emily Proud *A.J. Ross *Piper Shaw * Mike Trudell *Kirsten Watson

Viewership

The two games on CBS on June 19 and June 26,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

averaged about 427,000 and 567,000 viewers respectively. For

, CBS Sports enjoyed its most watched regular season ever for the WNBA. CBS Sports average 1.10 million viewers. That's up by 86% from the previous year. The most watched game in ''WNBA on CBS'' history is the June 16, 2024 contest between the Chicago Sky and

, which averaged 2.25 million viewers.

References

External links

* * {{Women's National Basketball Association on television 2019 American television series debuts 2010s American television series 2020s American television series CBS Sports CBS American English-language television shows CBS original programming CBS Sports Network original programming