MIDWAY into its run, the 10-part documentary The Last Dance continues to churn out impressive audience numbers, now averaging 5.8 million viewers across its first six episode premieres, this according to numbers shared by ESPN.
Had its Episodes 5 and 6 premiere on Monday (Manila time), The Last Dance, which chronicles the final run at the NBA championship by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s in 1998, saw an average 5.5 million viewers who tuned in for its latest drop.
The number took the average viewer numbers of the documentary to 5.8 million across the first six episodes, 62% more viewers than the next-closest documentary debut on ESPN — You Don’t Know Bo in 2012.
Episodes 5 and 6 averaged 5.5 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2, with episode 5 averaging 5.8 million viewers and episode 6 averaging 5.2 million viewers, based on initial Nielsen reporting, ESPN said.
Moreover, The Last Dance is seeing it being consumed a lot through re-airs and on-demand viewing.
After a record-setting initial audience, including all viewing, Episodes 1 and 2 now have an average minute audience of 13 million and 13.1 million, respectively, figures which represent more than a 100% increase from initial Nielsen reporting.
In less than one week, Episodes 3 and 4 have seen their audiences increase by 84% and 94%, respectively, from initial Nielsen reporting, now coming in at 11.3 million (Episode 3) and 10.9 million (Episode 4) viewers, both of which are higher figures than Episodes 1 and 2 reported a week after their initial airings.
To reach more people, the documentary series has been made available outside of the United States as well by way of Netflix.
The Last Dance was supposed to originally set to air in June but ESPN decided to push up the airing to an earlier date (April 19 debut).
ESPN said by doing so it would be providing people who are longing for their steady fix of live sporting events with a temporary reprieve from the cloud of uncertainty and concern that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
