13 million people tuned in to watch O.J. Simpson make parole
As Ryan Murphy, Hertz Rent A Car, and a million TV legal pundits from the ’90s already know, there’s nothing like a little O.J. Simpson to juice up your ratings. That truism was proven yet again yesterday by the viewing figures for Simpson’s successful parole hearing, with Variety reporting that 13.5 million people tuned in to watch a Nevada parole board grant him his eventual freedom. (The L.A. Times called those numbers a “dud,” relative to other Simpson TV milestones like the white Bronco chase, but it still seems like a lot of people watching a man smile from behind a table.) This, despite the fact that Simpson restrained himself from pledging to find the real guy who broke into a Las Vegas sports memorabilia store eight years ago, in order to steal O.J. Simpson’s old trophies.