ESPN

Network executives knew the first weekend with multiple live events would draw good numbers but for the most part they exceeded expectations. The Bundesliga’s return drew record numbers on Fox Sports 1, Saturday night’s UFC card on ESPN was one of the top shows on cable television and Sunday’s NASCAR race on Fox was the most-viewed non-Daytona race in three years.

ESPN shot up a documentary that it believed would score big with audiences. How did it work out? In the words of ESPN NBA announcer Mike Breen: “Bang!” The Last Dance — ESPN’s 10-part documentary about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls — was a smashing success for the network. It was critically acclaimed, generally adored by sports fans if Twitter is the judge and a ratings success. The original airings of all 10 episodes averaged 5.6 million viewers, making The Last Dance the most-watched documentary ever on ESPN.

“I can’t think of a single player move ever that adjusted requests and turned the process upside down as much as this,” said Fox Sports SVP Michael Mulvihill about Brady signing with Tampa Bay. “I think the league treated everyone well with Tampa Bay because they knew how great everyone’s interest was. It was a significant curveball.”

The Walt Disney-owned sports-media giant, scrambling to fill its programming grid as most major U.S. sports leagues have suspended play, said it had struck a deal with Eclat Media Group to show six live 2020 regular-season games per week from the KBO League, South Korea’s baseball organization. One game will air each day, Tuesday through Sunday, generally on ESPN2 and on the ESPN App — but the telecasts will air in wee-morning hours, owing to the time difference between the U.S. and South Korean.

Each day attracted record audiences. Thursday’s first round averaged 15.6 million, Friday’s second and third rounds 8.2 million and Saturday’s final four rounds 4.2 million. ESPN and NFL Network had a combined production all three days while ABC had separate telecasts Thursday and Friday before simulcasting the ESPN/NFL Network feed Saturday. ESPN Deportes also had a separate broadcast.

Demand for advertising space during the NFL draft broadcast has reached unprecedented levels due to the growing popularity of the event and a lack of other live sports opportunities, Disney Advertising Sales said this week. The COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out most of the U.S. sports calendar, but the three-day draft will go forward in a “virtual” format, with players participating from home, and be broadcast on Disney-owned ABC and ESPN starting on Thursday.

The opening two hours of ESPN’s docuseries The Last Dance, which chronicles Jordan’s career, fame and legacy while focusing on the 1997-98 NBA season, averaged 6.1 million viewers Sunday on ESPN and ESPN2. The two episodes are the most-watched ever for ESPN documentary content — and in a sports-starved landscape, outdrew nearly every live NBA game this season.

The April 23-25 draft was originally scheduled to be in Las Vegas but has been moved due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will now originate from ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn. Draft hosts and a limited number of commentators will be in-studio but will adhere to social distancing guidelines.

ESPN, struggling to keep fresh programming on its schedule with live sports sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic, is asking some of its best-known personalities to take pay cuts.

Empty parking lots, no highlights and three live shows a day: How ESPN’s 40-year-old program is fighting through the coronavirus pandemic.

While the rest of the sporting world continues to be shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, the NFL is going full steam ahead with its offseason activities, formally annoucing the 2020 NFL Draft will be completely virtual. ESPN and NFL Network are still expected to air the draft, which is scheduled for April 23-25.

Two new commercials address the challenges sports fans — and ESPN itself — are facing amid the coronavirus shutdown.

ESPN’s newsmagazine E: 60 led all nominations (with 10) for the 41st Annual Sports Emmy Awards, as announced on Thursday by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Sports Emmys, originally scheduled for April 28 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with no replacement date yet announced. Nonetheless, NATAS has moved ahead with revealing this year’s nominees.

Of all the sports ESPN has shown over the years, professional wrestling matches from WWE haven’t really been on the list. That will change this weekend. For three Sundays, the Disney-owned sports-media giant will air classic WrestleMania events on its flagship cable network and stream them on its mobile app.

The PGA Tour, the organizer of the main professional men’s golf tours in the U.S., has struck a new nine-year deal with CBS Sports, NBC Sports and ESPN that significantly raises the costs of bringing golf to U.S. fans while gaining new traction for digital coverage of the sport.

Thinking large and outside the box, ESPN plans to attempt to acquire Al Michaels from NBC Sports for Monday Night Football. ESPN would like to team Michaels with Peyton Manning in its dream booth, according to sources.

ESPN and Fox Sports had to come together if the heavyweight showdown between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury at the MGM Grand hotel this Saturday was to happen. And it’s also true that both networks are blanketing the airwaves this week like never before in an effort to get people to dig into their pockets for the $79.99 it will cost to watch the fight at home.

Advertisers have been slow to the table to support the newly-revived XFL league, which kicks off this weekend. Interest is finally stirring, according to ESPN and ABC, but uncertain audience engagement and the memory of past alternative pro-football league failures cast a shadow over its prospects.

The audience for the game, in which LSU defeated the defending champion Clemson 42-21 to complete the team’s undefeated season, was up 3% from last year’s Alabama-Clemson CFP National Championship telecast, which drew 24.3 million viewers, according to ESPN.

Monday night wasn’t the best of nights for the ESPN app. The much anticipated National Championship game between Clemson and LSU was malfunctioning on ESPN streaming services for most of the first half. Numerous fans took to social media to complain that when they logged into both ESPN+ and the ESPN app to access the game, they were met with an error message.

After 40 years as the voice of college hoops on ESPN, Dick Vitale seems to be just getting started. “I want to do this until I’m 100!” he says.

The NBA is throwing up bricks in national TV ratings over the first quarter of the regular season. A combination of big stars being absent from national telecasts, a marquee team mostly missing from the league’s two biggest broadcast partners and the fall of a recent dynasty have all factored into the drop. But there’s still time for the league to find its touch.