ESPN's Michael Jordan 'The Last Dance' Premiere Averaged 6.1M Viewers

Michael Jordan hasn't played in the NBA since the 2002-03 season, but he is apparently as relevant as ever.

According to Isabelle Lopez of ESPN, Sunday's broadcast of The Last Dance documentary on ESPN and ESPN 2 chronicling Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s averaged 6.1 million viewers for the opening two episodes.

The first episode averaged 6.3 million viewers, while the second one averaged 5.8 million viewers, making it the most-viewed documentary content in ESPN's history. It is also the most-viewed broadcast on ESPN in 2020 since the College Football Playoff National Championship Game between LSU and Clemson in January.

John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal said the "numbers blew away even the most optimistic projections."

There are a number of contributing factors to these astronomical totals.

For one, sports have largely been on hiatus for more than a month during the coronavirus pandemic. Fans are starving for content, and the first two episodes of a 10-hour documentary featuring one of the most popular athletes on one of the most popular teams in sports history is going to draw eyeballs.

The mystique of Jordan certainly helped as well.

While even casual sports fans know the stories of his six championships, brief retirement to play baseball and famous will to win, he doesn't give as many public interviews as he did during the prime of his career. The documentary featured first-person accounts of those years from Jordan himself, as well as Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson and many more.

Even former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton made appearances in the opening two episodes.

If these numbers are any indication, sports fans will continue tuning in on Sunday nights for the remaining eight hours as stories such as the Bulls' rivalry with the Detroit Pistons and the tension between players and the front office are explored in depth.