National ratings are not yet available, but one city ESPN can rest assured is glued to the network on Sunday nights is Chicago. The first two episodes of the documentary series scored ratings in the double digits on Sunday night.
Episode 1 picked up a 12.6 rating. The number dropped slightly for episode 2. It scored an 11.7. The audience for the unedited version on ESPN absolutely dwarfs the number of people watching on ESPN2.
It’s not just that ESPN is putting up big numbers. The Last Dance also has a much bigger audience than anything else on TV in the Windy City. The next highest rated program of the night was 60 Minutes, which scored a 7.9 rating, but did not go head-to-head with the documentary.
Programs that did go right up against The Last Dance did not fair well in Chicago. CBS’s block of NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans averaged a 4.7 and 3.9 respectively. ABC’s airing of American Idol scored a 3.5.
These numbers only represent the size of the audience watching live. The live plus 7 numbers will be released later and give a better picture of the total audience for The Last Dance.
