At a time when sports fans are desperate for anything even remotely resembling sports, ESPN found the thing nobody would watch.
The 2020 ESPYs came in at an all-time low — 482,000 viewers, down from the previous record of 1.98 million in 2011. The ESPYs were doomed to fail in this environment. But did it have to be this way?
By April 19, it had been more than a month since the sports apocalypse, brought on by Utah Jazz stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell contracting the virus. It was still a month out from the return of NASCAR, which signaled the slow return of sports without spectators. It should have been another empty Sunday for ESPN, but thanks to a heads-up schedule change, they were about to take the sporting world by storm.
The Last Dance, the docuseries about Michael Jordan’s time with the Chicago Bulls, was set to air in June. It was pushed up to fill the void left by an absence of sports. The debut episodes did 6.1 million viewers, and for the next five weeks, it became must-watch viewing. Over 10 episodes, the series averaged 5.6 million viewers.
The ESPYs have gone political before, and tapping soccer star (and political activist) Megan Rapinoe to co-host was a pretty clear indication what direction the broadcast would be going this year. If you heard anything about this year’s version, it was probably the Black Lives Matter PSA to start the show. It flopped.
