ESPN’s Sports-Starved Viewers Set Rating Record for ‘Last Dance’

(Bloomberg) -- With live sports on hold, ESPN viewers devoured the first episode of its Michael Jordan series “The Last Dance,” setting a ratings record for a documentary airing on the network.

Some 6.3 million viewers tuned in to ESPN and its sister network ESPN2 for the first installment, which began at 9 p.m. New York time Sunday night. The second episode, which ran right after, averaged a lower 5.8 million viewers. Chicago, where Jordan spent most of his playing career, was the top market in terms of the share of audience watching.

The Walt Disney Co.-owned network has seen the largest declines among major cable TV channels since the Covid-19 virus forced the postponement or cancellation of most live sporting events. ESPN, like other sports channels, has scrambled for content that people will want to watch, adding replays of famous matches and more documentary content.

“Fans are craving high-quality sports content and we look forward to building upon the momentum in the coming weeks as the series continues to get better with each episode,” Connor Schell, ESPN’s executive vice president for content, said in a blog post.

The 10-part Jordan documentary, which chronicles the basketball great’s final championship-winning season with the Chicago Bulls, was originally scheduled for June, but ESPN was able to move it up to make up for lost live events.

This week the network also is gearing up for the National Football League draft, which begins Thursday.

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