Fox News has spent plenty of airtime this year on the WNBA, from the transgender athlete debate, Caitlin Clark, and the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries leaving the court for the national anthem during the WNBA Finals. But at least one of the network’s hosts is sick of talking about it.
During Wednesday’s episode of The Five, Jesse Watters said that he “hates” the WNBA and doesn’t watch it. And when his co-hosts tried to discuss the anthem controversy, he announced that he was boycotting the segment.
Anthem Controversy
The Dream and Valkyries have left the court shortly before the national anthem ahead of each of the first three games of the WNBA Finals, returning seconds after it ends. Conservative critics have pointed to the league’s rulebook, which calls for players to “stand and line up in a dignified posture” during the anthem.
But according to the Associated Press, the WNBA suspended its anthem protocols in 2017, and many teams have left the court before the anthem for years. The Valkyries say that it has been their routine since joining the league last year.
The league itself has stayed silent, choosing to ignore the outrage rather than respond to it.
‘I Hate the WNBA’
Watters made it clear that he wanted no part of the conversation.
“I hate the story. I hate the WNBA. I don’t watch it. No one watches it,” Watters said, via Acyn Torabi. “They average under a million viewers during the regular season, and it’s boring. And the only time we talk about it is like they fouled the white star too hard or someone wore a t-shirt.”
When one of his co-hosts pointed out that the teams “walked out of the Star-Spangled Banner,” Watters still didn’t care.
“Okay, great. Okay, no one saw it because no one’s watching,” Watters said.
“I don’t want to push this story anymore. I want to leave this story alone. I am no longer talking about the WNBA. As of now, I boycott this segment. I will just cede my time to anybody but Greg,” he added, referring to co-host Greg Gutfeld.
Not the First Time
This isn’t the first time that Watters has tried to opt out of talking about the WNBA. Back in August, during the controversy over Sophie Cunningham’s comments on transgender athletes, he said that he was “done” with The Five‘s coverage of the league.
“This is week three of The Five covering the WNBA, and I have to say, I’m done,” Watters said at the time, via Awful Announcing. “I hate the WNBA.”
“We get paid to have an opinion about everything. And this is something I don’t care about,” Watters continued. “There will not be a man in the WNBA. We don’t even cover the NBA. Why are we covering the WNBA? This is ridiculous.”
That segment came as conservative media rallied behind Cunningham, and after Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt to a game against the Fever. Watters also said that the only WNBA story he had cared about was fans throwing sex toys on the court.
Watters isn’t entirely wrong about the regular-season ratings, as the league averaged 771,000 viewers per game. But that was still a 26-year high, and Game 1 of the Finals drew 2.1 million viewers, the most ever for a Finals opener.
Clearly, plenty of people are watching. And it’s hard to take Watters’ boycott seriously when his own network can’t stop talking about the league.
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