“The Challenger Disaster” produced stellar ratings for Science Channel Saturday night, as the scripted feature drew almost 2 million viewers in a simulcast across Science and Discovery Channel.
Broadcast ranked as Science’s most-watched program of the year, and third most-watched program in the net’s history.
The TV movie, starring William Hurt, averaged 730,000 viewers on Science Channel and 1.2 million on Discovery in its 9 p.m. timeslot. By weekend’s end, over 5 million viewers had tuned into the special and its encore broadcasts.
“The Challenger Disaster” follows the story of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Richard Feynman’s role in the investigation of the Challenger space shuttle crash.