00:00Leaving Neverland, which aired over two nights on March 3rd and 4th, has provided
00:03HBO with its third-largest audience for a documentary with an average of 1.11
00:08million viewers tuning into the four-hour film. The Dan Reed-directed doco delves into
00:12the harrowing allegations of child sexual abuse made against the late Michael Jackson
00:16by Wade Robson and James Safechuck.
00:30And a re-emergence in their lives when Jackson was taken to court over other allegations
00:34of abuse and needed them to testify to prove his innocence.
00:37Jackson's surviving family members have denied the allegations and Leaving Neverland is now
00:41the subject of a $100 million lawsuit against HBO filed by Jackson's estate, which claims
00:47the film violates a non-disparagement clause in a 1992 contract from when the cable network
00:51aired one of the pop icon's concerts. Part 1 of Leaving Neverland averaged 1.29 million
00:56viewers for its first airing on Sunday night, the third-largest audience for an HBO
01:00documentary this decade behind Going Clear, Scientology and the Prison of Belief with
01:041.7 million viewers and Bright Lights starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, which
01:08pulled in an audience of 1.6 million. The initial audience for Leaving Neverland is
01:12several times larger than the typical tune-in for HBO documentaries. The last six docs to
01:17air on Monday nights on HBO have averaged about 187,000 viewers for their first airings.
01:22And 780,000 people tuned in to the Oprah Winfrey-hosted special After Neverland, which
01:27aired immediately after part two of The Dock and featured interviews with Reid, Robson
01:31and Safechuck in front of an audience of sexual abuse survivors and their families.
01:35Across all platforms, part one of Leaving Neverland had gathered 1.9 million viewers
01:39as of Tuesday afternoon and part two is at 1.1 million, bumping up the average for the
01:44whole film to 1.5 million viewers.
01:46Meanwhile, Across the Pond, The Dock is set to air on Channel 4 in the U.K. starting March 6,
01:51with a group of 20-30 Jackson fans gathering outside the network's London headquarters
01:55ahead of the docuseries' debut in protest. The MJ fans insisted their idol is innocent
02:00and expressed criticism of Robson and Safechuck, saying they hijacked the MeToo movement.
02:04Channel 4 told THR that it would be airing the special as planned.
02:07To read more on this story, head to THR.com.
02:10For The Hyde Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.
Comments