Primetime event documentary Framing Britney Spears smashes Sky Docs record

Framing Britney Spears, the New York Times and Left/Right documentary for FX and Hulu, which has started a global conversation about the singer, premiered last night, February 16, on Sky Documentaries in the UK. 

Sold to Sky by Red Arrow Studios International, the documentary attracted a 1.3% audience share, making it easily the factual channel’s most watched show since its launch in May.

Framing Britney Spears drew an audience almost three-times the size of I Am Patrick Swayze (79,000/0.7%) in a Sunday 5.15pm slot in August.

The feature peaked with close to 300,000 (2%) just after 10pm and gripped a younger, female audience.

The 16-34 demographic accounted for more than a third (34.5%) of the audience, closely followed by 35-44s (33%). The channel’s average profile for these age groups is 2%.

Around 4% of 16-24s and the same proportion of 25-34s watching TV at the time tuned in, according to Barb data provided by overnights.tv.

Meanwhile, women accounted for almost two thirds of the audience (65% / 142,800) against a 47% average.

Directed by Samantha Stark, Framing Britney Spears (1 x 75’) is produced by The New York Times and Left/Right, and premiered on FX and Hulu in the US on February 5, 2021.

Framing Britney Spears reexamines her career and offers a new assessment of the movement rallying against her court-mandated conservatorship, capturing the unsavory dimensions of the American pop-star machine.

The series is executive produced by Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick, Stephanie Preiss from The New York Times, and Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver and Mary Robertson from Left/Right.

FX and Hulu commissioned the 10 part The New York Times Presents series of standalone documentaries last year, produced by Left/Right and The New York Times, with a remit to present investigations and character-driven stories and features reporting from journalists at The New York Times.

The series is from the same team that produced acclaimed documentary series The Weekly, which won four news & documentary Emmy awards last September.

Both The Weekly and The New York Times Presents, which is marketed internationally as The Weekly: Special Edition and launched at MIPCOM in October, are distributed worldwide by Red Arrow Studios International.