ESPN is replacing its long-running “Sunday Night Baseball” franchise with a new summer primetime block dedicated to women’s sports, anchored by marquee WNBA and NWSL matchups under the banner “Women’s Sports Sundays.”
Disney-owned ESPN announced that beginning in summer 2026 it will debut “Women’s Sports Sundays,” a nine-week Sunday night primetime series built around top-tier games from the WNBA and the National Women’s Soccer League. The move fills the high-profile Sunday slot vacated after the network ended its nearly four-decade run of “Sunday Night Baseball.”
The new franchise will feature 12 live primetime games across ESPN platforms, supplemented by studio programming and expanded digital and social coverage designed to create a consistent destination for women’s sports fans. ESPN executives say additional women’s events outside the primetime window will also be part of the broader Sunday focus on women’s sports.
Focus on NWSL and WNBA
ESPN’s Sunday block will spotlight “premier” WNBA and NWSL matchups, leveraging both leagues’ recent surges in audience and sponsorship interest. The NWSL, which has seen rapid growth and surpassed 1 million average viewers for its 2025 championship, will gain a prominent national showcase as part of the package. This Sunday-night push comes on top of ESPN’s expanded NWSL rights deal that will see the network and ABC carry 36 league games in 2026, including Decision Day and playoff matches.
Rosalyn Durant, ESPN’s executive vice president of programming and acquisitions, framed the initiative as a business priority rather than a niche experiment, saying the aim is to build a “reliable, high-profile platform” that reflects the passion, quality and cultural impact of today’s women’s sports. Company officials describe the shift as both a response to sustained demand and a strategic effort to turn a historically quieter part of the sports calendar into an appointment-viewing window for women’s basketball and soccer.