ESPN’s “The Last Dance” put up monster ratings during its Sunday night premiere.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Michael Jordan documentary averaged 6.1 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2. The first episode averaged 6.3 million viewers and the second averaged 5.8 million viewers. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Those numbers are absolutely absurd for ESPN. Averaging more than six million viewers for a documentary is nothing short of crazy.
Those are the kind of numbers you expect to see out of a reasonably big football game. They’re not the numbers you expect out of a documentary.
I think it really speaks to two things. First, people love the story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, and younger sports fans want to learn as much as possible.
You have to remember, people below their early 30s weren’t really old enough to remember and live through the Jordan era.
They might have been alive, but it’s hard to understand somebody’s greatness at the age of five.
Secondly, it just goes to prove how desperate people are for any kind of sports content. It’s been more than a month since sports disappeared because of coronavirus.
“The Last Dance” has been the biggest thing in the world of sports since then.
Cannot. Wait. ????
“The Last Dance,” a 10-part documentary series will chronicle Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, one of the greatest icons and most successful dynasties in sports history, will debut on ESPN in 2020. pic.twitter.com/B72ljh5GbE
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 25, 2018
Tune in Sunday night for the third and fourth episodes of the ten-part series. It’s off to a great start.