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ESPN will be replacinggSunday Night Baseball with a new programming block called “Women’s Sports Sundays.” Last season was the final year of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN after 35 years on the network, with the title since moving to NBC/Peacock.
According to ESPN, the network will air nine weeks of “Women’s Sports Sundays” programming, built around marquee matchups from the WNBA and the National Women’s Soccer League, and “expects to surround the games with bespoke studio programming that could rely on talent already assigned to coverage of either league.”
In addition to the WNBA and NWSL, ESPN also has an eight-year deal in place with the NCAA for women’s sports, including basketball, and also has the broadcast rights to the Little League Softball World Series and Athletes Unlimited Softball League.
ESPN set to replace Sunday Night Baseball with nine weeks of Women’s Sports Sundays
“Sunday is a day of the week when we see a ton of our best women’s sports programming, and we will have events outside of our primetime window,” Susie Piotrkowski, vice president of women’s sports programming and espnW, said in an interview with Variety. “We saw an opportunity to have access in what I would call women’s sports season, the summer months. This was an opportunity to be intentional and make sure our most premium women’s sports properties” were presented in a regular showcase that would make more fans familiar with them.”
“’Women’s Sports Sundays’ isn’t an experiment. It is a flag in the ground, and a continuing commitment,” Rosalyn Durant, ESPN’s executive vice president, programming & acquisitions, added.
In November 2025, MLB announced that it had signed a new three-year media rights agreements with NBCUniversal, which will bring MLB games back to NBC for the first time in 25 years.
ESPN’s commitment to women’s sports, particularly the WNBA, comes at a trick time as the WNBA and the players’ association are currently in the midst of negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement and are not guaranteed to begin the 2026 regular season on its currently scheduled May 8 opening night.