Nearly two years have passed since ESPN announced the upcoming 10-hour documentary about the 1998 Chicago Bulls, titled “The Last Dance.” Originally, there was hope that the film could air in 2019 but, eventually, things settled in with a scheduled airdate of June 2020. With that said, there has been a massive internet movement for ESPN to push the series up as quickly as possible with the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the absence of live sports content — with LeBron James even voicing his support for moving it up.
In mid-March, ESPN threw a bit of cold water on the potential to move the airdate, insisting that the documentary wasn’t done with production and thus couldn’t be released just yet. That all changed on Monday evening, though, with Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reporting that the documentary will begin airing on Sunday, April 19. There has been no formal announcement to this point, but Marchand’s reporting indicates that “ABC/ESPN plans to make an announcement on ‘Good Morning America’ on Tuesday.”
While April 19 is still nearly three weeks away, the arrival of this highly anticipated piece of sports media content will be welcomed with open arms, especially for basketball diehards that have been counting down the days until they can take a deep dive into Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls. ESPN famously enjoyed massive success, both from casual audiences and critics, with Ezra Edelman’s “OJ: Made In America” documentary and, if “The Last Dance” can follow closely in the massive footsteps of that effort, consumers will be thrilled to spend ten hours with the product in the near future.