Daredevil Nik Wallenda added a blindfolded wire walk to his latest stunt for Discovery, but viewers apparently did not want to watch — at least not in the numbers they delivered for his previous telecast.
The Los Angeles Times’ Show Tracker reports that Discovery’s Sunday night telecast of Wallenda’s high-wire walk between Chicago skyscrapers drew fewer viewers than Wallenda’s Grand Canyon walk in 2013.
“Skyscraper Live with Nik Wallenda” drew an average of about 6 million total viewers, peaking at 6.7 million viewers during the 2-minute segment when he was blindfolded, the story notes.
While that makes it Discovery’s most-watched telecast this year, it is far short of the 10.7 million total viewers who tuned in for Wallenda’s “Skywire Live” walk across the Grand Canyon in June 2013 .
Wallenda’s Chicago stunt had extra competition, the story points out. His telecast was competing against NBC’s coverage of a Ravens/Steelers game, which may have drawn viewers away from the stunt.
This is a bit unfair. On a very busy Sunday night, including the NFL, these are great numbers for Discovery.