ESPN Michael Jordan documentary draws record-setting 6.1 million viewers

ESPN’s documentary “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan’s last season with the Chicago Bulls drew a whopping 6.1 million viewers on Sunday night for its first two episodes, making it the most-watched documentary in the history of the 41-year-old network.

The Jordan documentary comes as almost all major American sports saw their seasons postponed or canceled last month as the coronavirus outbreak spread across the country, leaving many sports fans hungry for something new to watch.

“The Last Dance” is ESPN’s highest-rated telecast since the College Football Playoff National Championship game in January between LSU and Clemson.

The network moved up the 10-part documentary series to April from June, when the NBA Finals are normally played. The series will run each Sunday night at 9 p.m. until May 17.

“We were so thrilled with the response to the premiere of ‘The Last Dance,’” ESPN’s executive vice president of content Connor Schell said in a statement. “Clearly, 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.”

Jordan won six NBA championships with the Bulls, which was a dormant franchise before he arrived in 1984.

The first episode of “The Last Dance” included Jordan encountering what was known as the “traveling cocaine circus” for the first time during his rookie season with the team in 1984-85.

“I think we were in Peoria, it was in a hotel, and I was trying to find my teammates,” Jordan said. “I start knocking on doors, I get to this one door, and I could hear someone say, shhh, someone’s outside. This deep voice says, ‘who is it?’ I say, it’s MJ, and they say, ah, f—, he’s just a rookie. Don’t worry about it.”

“So they open up the door. I walk in, and practically the whole team is in there. It was things I had never seen in my life as a young kid. You got your lines over here, you got your weed smokers over here, you got your women over here,” he said.

“The first thing I said is, ‘I’m out.’ Because all I can think about is if they come raid this place right now, I am just as guilty as everyone else in this room. From that point on, I was more or less on my own,” Jordan added.

The most-watched ESPN documentary had previously been “O.J. Simpson: Made in America” which drew 3.4 million viewers on sister network ABC in 2016.