Did any of you watch Nik Wallenda walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope wire last night? Discovery covered it, and folks were tweeting about it like mad. For instance, Phillip Phillips tweeted, “About to watch the guy walk across the Grand Canyon. Crazy. I couldn’t do it…Wishing you the best @NikWallenda …more of a man than I am. #skywire #dontlookdown…Holy crap!!!…Wow! Absolutely amazing!!! Congrats @NikWallenda ! #skywire #toldyounottolookdown”
He performed the feet, 1400 feet across on a two inch wire, without a harness or safety net. I wonder what Discovery would have done if he had fallen? The 20 minute tight rope walk was oddly compelling TV. All the way across, Nik kept praying, and thanking Jesus. He was obviously nervous, and after the walk was complete, he admitted that it was windier than he expected. Oh. he also made sure to thank the Discovery channel, as well as the Lord. Heh.
If you think it’s a joke, just understand that seven generations of Wallendas have done high wire acts, since the early 20th century. And several members of the family have died over the years in the process of attempting very dangerous stunts. So, anything could have happened.
The ratings were impressive. Discovery has sent out a press release that reports that Skywire Live “delivered 8.5 total viewers P2+, and a whopping 13 million total viewers P2+ during the walk segment, shattering ratings records across numerous platforms, including social media where it generated 1.3 million tweets driving it to become the #1 most social show across broadcast and cable in the U.S.”
The live show, “from 9:10-10:20PM ranks as Discovery’s highest-rated live event. It’s also the highest-rated special since Walking with Dinosaurs (7.99 HH / 6.16 P25-54) and Raising the Mammoth (7.84 HH / 6.40 P25-54) in March/April 2000.”
The show that came on after Naked and Afraid, did really well too (Naked is the key word here) giving Discovery it’s best night since July 2010.
Via TVByTheNumbers
