“’Skyscraper Live’ is truly a global television event, being broadcast in 220 countries – it is truly the definition of television you simply can’t miss,” Conal Byrne, VP of Digital Media at Discovery, told Lost Remote.
Nik Wallenda, “The King of the Highwire,” tonight will cross more than two city blocks uphill at a 15-degree angle in ‘The Windy City.’ This will mark the steepest walk he’s ever attempted, and ‘Skyscraper Live’ will be broadcast live at 7pm EST (well, with a 10-second delay since he won’t be wearing a harness) on Discovery.
The network’s coverage will include a multiplatform experience built by the same team that created last year’s ‘Skywire Live’ (in which Wallenda tightroped part of the Grand Canyon). The team won an Interactive Emmy for Multiplatform Storytelling for their effort. SkyscraperLive.com will give fans the ability to stream the event, and currently features a 3D interactive look at the walk, a 360-degree view from the wire, and videos about Nik, his family, and his training.
“We had such great success with the site for ‘Skywire Live,’ winning an Interactive Emmy for Multiplatform Storytelling, so of course for ‘Skyscraper Live’ we wanted to include some of the same incredible elements that brought viewers onto that wire with Wallenda and smashed records for Discovery Channel on-air and online – but also raise the bar with lots of new experiences, too,” said Byrne.
Raising the bar is something that networks must do as it becomes increasingly more difficult for them to capture a live audience. It is becoming so difficult, in fact, that Emily Steel’s piece for ‘The New York Times’ on Discovery’s event is titled: “Risking a Life for TV Ratings: Nik Wallenda’s Risky Stunt for Discovery Channel Points to TV’s Audience Troubles.”While ‘Skyscraper Live’ certainly meets the criteria for must-watch TV, and Discovery’s multiplatform coverage of the event is brilliant, it is worth reading Steel’s piece for more on risk associated with such a high-stakes event and the ethical implications of its broadcast.