NBC Sports Set To Produce Games 1 and 4 as WNBA Finals Return to NBC for First Time Since 2002

Onsite studio show will accompany game productions in San Francisco and Atlanta

For the first time in 24 years, the WNBA Finals will air on NBC, bringing full circle the network's first season back in the league.

NBC Sports will present Game 1 of the 2026 WNBA Finals on Saturday, Oct. 17, when the Golden State Valkyries host the Atlanta Dream at Chase Center in San Francisco (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock). The broadcaster will also produce Game 4 on Saturday, Oct. 24, in Atlanta, which the league has moved to State Farm Arena.

For NBC Sports Executive Producer/President Sam Flood, the championship series represents both a homecoming for a league that launched on NBC in 1997 and a fitting conclusion to the broadcaster's first season under its 11-year media-rights agreement.

We love being back in the WNBA business, Flood said during a media conference call this week. It's at a whole different level now. This is big time. The ratings are through the roof. They were really big back in our early days. But this current iteration of the league is so much fun to watch. These buildings are packed. The crowds are crazy engaged at every second of every game.

Leading NBC's Finals game productions are Coordinating Producer Betsy Riley and Coordinating Director Jenny Glazer, who have overseen the WNBA coverage throughout the 2026 season.

When NBC Sports launched its WNBA package in May, Riley emphasized a production philosophy built around keeping the game at the center of the coverage while incorporating innovative storytelling and technology.

Its approach has drawn heavily from its NBA on NBC production infrastructure, including NEP's IP-based mobile units; remote-production workflows connected to NBC Sports' Stamford, CT, broadcast center; and 1080p HDR game coverage. Throughout the regular season, the production team deployed high-frame-rate cameras, above-the-rim robotic cameras, and other specialty-capture technologies to enhance its presentation.

At the start of the season, Riley told SVG that the goal was to continue refining the coverage throughout the summer and into the postseason. We intend to tinker all the way up until the fall and the finals so that we're getting it right for our audience.

With the championship stage set, Flood is particularly complimentary of the work that Riley and Glazer have put in over the past several months: Really proud of the work that Betsy and Jenny have done. They're a great team. Betsy is so passionate about this project. She's constantly coming up with ideas to add this, add that, how about trying this. It has been fun to watch her work through the process.

And then, he continues, Jenny has done a wonderful job leading all our WNBA games as the coordinating director. She has that leadership chip that you want in someone overseeing a project of this magnitude. Now they get to show off on the biggest stage with this great talent team and this perfect matchup for the WNBA Finals.

NBC Sports will exclusively produce Games 1 and 4, and Peacock will also simulstream USA Network's coverage of Games 2, 3, 5, and 7, produced by Versant's USA Sports. Zora Stephenson will handle play-by-play duties for Games 1 and 4, joined by analyst Sarah Kustok and courtside reporter Ashley ShahAhmadi. All three will be calling their first WNBA Finals.

NBC Sports will begin its Game 1 coverage on Saturday with an onsite edition of WNBA Showtime at 3 p.m. ET. Overseen by Coordinating Producer Alexa Maremaa and director Kelly Atkinson, it is hosted by Maria Taylor alongside two Naismith Basketball Hall of Famers, analysts Sue Bird and Cheryl Miller.

For Flood, these games are an opportunity to put an exclamation point on a successful first season back in the WNBA.

We can't ask for anything more and are thrilled that Season 1 is almost in the books, he said, but no better way than to cap it off with the WNBA Finals.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/10/16/nbc-sports-set-to-produce-games...
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