Michael Jordan was ratings gold for TV networks during his days dominating on the hardwood. He appeared in the four highest-rated NBA Finals of all time, with viewership peaking at 29 million per game in 1998. When he left the Chicago Bulls for good in his second retirement, Finals viewership plunged 45%. In the two decades that followed, the NBA hasn’t even come close, with the highest-rated Finals—the Golden State Warriors versus the Cleveland Cavaliers—pulling 20 million viewers in both 2016 and 2017.
With the sports world shut down, MJ is making a comeback. The much anticipated ten-part documentary series The Last Dance, which follows Jordan’s final Bulls season, aired on ESPN with a pair of episodes last Sunday. The series will unravel, two episodes at a time, every Sunday night through May 17. The series is available on Netflix outside the U.S.
The documentary was originally scheduled for a late June release, but ESPN, which is suffering from a dearth of programming caused by the coronavirus quarantines, rescheduled it after fans flooded social media with pleas to move up the release. The outpouring revealed the depth of the public’s love affair with the 57-year-old star, who during his retirement has entered the Hall of Fame in 2009, triggered a legendary internet meme and become the richest athlete of all time. To mark the occasion, Forbes broke down the business of being Michael Jordan.
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