EXCLUSIVE: Diane Sawyer‘s deep dive into the life and work of fitness guru Richard Simmons has piqued audience interest.
The ABC News special, which aired on May 12, has tallied 10.2M viewers to-date across ABC, Disney+ and Hulu, per a combination of Nielsen Big Data + Panel and Disney’s internal metrics. That includes seven days of linear viewing for the original, as well as just under a month of streaming viewership (through June 2), as well as live + same-day numbers for the June 1 encore telecast.
Monday’s encore airing scored nearly 2.7M viewers alone, ranking as the top broadcast show of the night, according to Nielsen.
The Mystery of Richard Simmons – A Diane Sawyer Special managed to increase its audience by 57% over the 4.73M who initially tuned in live + same-day last month.
The L+SD audience already stood as the most-watched ABC News Primetime Special in nearly 6 years, since August 2020’s Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute to a King.
That first linear airing also led the 9 p.m. time period against all non-sports programming, Nielsen data shows.
The Mystery of Richard Simmons – A Diane Sawyer Special explores the beloved fitness guru’s rise to fame, his cultural impact, and the final decade of his life after stepping away from the public eye.
The special was produced by ABC News Studios. Mark Robertson and David Sloan are senior executive producers, and Tess Scott Davidson is executive producer.
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