Ratings for last weekend’s woke ESPY Awards crashed to the lowest numbers the show has ever recorded. The ESPYs only earned 482,000 viewers over both ESPN and ESPN2 combined, making it the smallest audience the show has ever reached dating back to its inaugural awards in 1993. The previous low occurred in 2011 when 1.98 million viewers tuned in, according to Sports Media Watch.
“This year’s ESPYs was tape-delayed, lacked its usual live audience, took place a month earlier on the calendar,” Sports Media Watch explained, “and occurred more than three months into a historic drought of live sporting events. With no live sports to focus on, this year’s ESPYs was largely devoted to humanitarian and social issues.”
Viewership tanked 88 percent:
Viewership fell 88% from last year (3.87M) and 2018 (3.94M), with the obvious caveat that the event aired as normal on ABC in those years. Viewership also fell 81% from 2014, the last time it aired on ESPN (2.55M).
The decline has continued on a downward trend since 2015, the year the awards went full woke when Caitlyn Jenner was awarded the “Arthur Ashe Courage Award.”
In 2015, the show reached a high of 7.75 million viewers, but has declined precipitously every year since.
The ESPYs couldn’t even beat ESPN’s regular programing on preceding Sunday nights, Sports Media Watch noted.
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