“I had hoped to share a better update, but I will not be returning to play this season.” With those words, Caitlin Clark left the entire basketball community stunned. Many had expected her to make it back just in time for the playoffs. Instead, after missing 19 straight games with a stubborn groin injury and a few failed comeback attempts, she was forced to shut it down. But could the situation be shifting?

The Fever are just one win away from punching their ticket to the semifinals, a run few thought was possible. Especially given the fact that the Fever were not only without Clark, but the likes of Sophie Cunningham, Aari McDonald, Sydney Colson and Chloe Bibby are also missing.

Naturally, that raised the question–could this unlikely push change Caitlin Clark’s status? Unfortunately, Indy Star’s Chloe Peterson shut down that hope. In her latest update on X, Peterson reported there is no chance of Clark returning for the entirety of the playoffs. And she gave her reason for it.

The thing about the WNBA is that only players listed on the submitted active roster are eligible to play in the postseason. That means Clark, who suited up just 13 times this season, wouldn’t have been able to join the team even if she had managed to get healthy.

The Fever entered the postseason with 11 active roster spots, four of them filled by hardship players — Odyssey Sims, Aerial Powers, Shey Peddy, and Bree Hall. They’ve had just 10 available players so far, with Damiris Dantas sidelined by a concussion she suffered last week. But should Indiana advance deeper into the playoffs, Dantas would be eligible to return since she’s already listed on the Fever’s playoff active roster, but not Clark.

The Fever have managed to defy all odds, pushing their series against the Dream to a decisive Game 3. Kelsey Mitchell, Natasha Howard, and Aliyah Boston all hit double figures in Game 2, keeping Indiana’s season alive. But with the do-or-die matchup ahead, one big question hangs over the storyline — what do the viewership numbers look like for the Fever now that Caitlin Clark isn’t on the floor?

How Indiana’s Viewership Looks Without Caitlin Clark

Everyone knows the kind of impact Caitlin Clark has had since stepping into the league in 2024. Her regular-season games that year averaged 1.2 million viewers — a staggering 199% jump compared to games without her. TV ratings overall soared by 300%, and nearly half (45%) of the league’s total broadcast value came from Fever games alone.

Her absence this season showed just how much she means to the league. The moment Clark went down with the left quadriceps injury, nationally televised WNBA viewership plunged by 55%, according to Nielsen ratings. The Fever’s own numbers took an even bigger hit — their national TV games dropped 53%, sliding from an average of 1.81 million viewers before her injury to just 847,000 after.

So the big question is, what do the numbers look like in the postseason? Well, according to Chloe Peterson, Game 2 of Fever–Dream on Tuesday pulled in an average of 1.5 million viewers, peaking at 1.7 million on ESPN. That makes it the second-most-watched first-round Game 2 in WNBA history.

Clearly, it’s not just Caitlin Clark pulling in the crowd anymore. Fans are tuning in because the overall product of the WNBA has leveled up. The talent pool keeps growing deeper every year, and if this trend continues, the numbers are only going to climb higher from here.