Ratings: Nik Wallenda’s ‘Skywire’ across Grand Canyon is Discovery gold

As if there was any doubt by the way in which it took over social media on Sunday night, Nik Wallenda’s trek across a part of the Grand Canyon (but not actually within the realm of the national park, mind you) ended up striking a huge chord with TV viewers. Not only was the dangerous act the most-watched television program on the night, but it also helped Discovery have its best night in almost three years.

Overall, the 22 minutes in which Wallenda was actually crossing the canyon on a wire (while promoting Jesus every step of the way) drew almost 13 million viewers, and the special as a whole produced the best ratings of its kind since 2000. These numbers even eclipsed what ABC pulled in for when Wallenda decided to pull off a similar stunt across Niagara Falls, though the hype surrounding that was somewhat destroyed by the fact that ABC forced him to wear a harness as a part of the proceedings.

Discovery also had to celebrated the premiere of its new series “Naked and Afraid.” This show, which forced people to survive with limited materials and also no clothes, was the highest-rated series premiere of the year for the network with 4.16 million viewers. It was also the second-strongest series launch ever for them, behind only last year’s “Amish Mafia.”

Does this mean that we are going to see Wallenda pull some sort of crazy stunt again in the future? You better believe it, though we don’t know how many more natural wonders that he is going to be able to find to do this over that will really have the same sort of effect.

If you want to read some more news about this special, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Discovery