Gwyneth Paltrow Ski Trial: Nearly 30 Million People Watched Across YouTube, Social Platforms
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Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski trial was watched by nearly 30 million people across YouTube and social media platforms, Variety can report.
The eight-day saga was covered exhaustively by major media outlets and disseminated in viral clips and memes all over the internet. It was also a significant boon for the Law and Crime Network, which streamed the trial live on its YouTube page (the channel also has carriage deals with the likes of Roku, Samsung TV and Sling TV, though those numbers only report quarterly).
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About 16.5 million people tuned in to the livestream, the network said. Another 7.4 million viewed the event on Facebook, and another 4.2 million consumed proceedings involving the Oscar winner on TikTok. Keep in mind, these numbers do not account for similar airings on Court TV and the Associated Press live feed.
“This trial performed incredibly well for us across all of our platforms. The interest continued to multiply each day we streamed it on our social live feeds, linear channel and for our video-on-demand,” said Rachel Stockman, president of the Law and Crime Network.
The Paltrow trial was centered around claims brought by Terry Sanderson, a retired optometrist who said the Goop founder skied into him on a Utah ski slope in 2016. Paltrow denied the allegations, saying Sanderson crashed into her. A jury sided with the star and awarded her a symbolic $1 in damages — but we, a rapt public, were awarded a lengthy courtroom drama starring one of the most famous women in the world. She drank green juice. She served looks. She lost half a day of skiing, and the nation would not let it stand. Paltrow now ranks among top performing trials ever to be broadcast by Law and Crime, alongside the infamous Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard case, as well as the prosecution of figures like Alex Jones.
“After the Johnny Depp defamation case, there seems to be a particular fascination with celebrities in court and this pretty simple personal injury case is the perfect example,” Stockman added. “If there hadn’t been a celebrity involved, no one would have cared. To be honest, viewers would have found the details quite uneventful in this civil suit. For this trial, however, we saw just the opposite, with viewers hanging on to every nugget.”
Not unlike the swift run down Utah’s Deer Valley’s Bandana trail, Paltrow’s day in court is over. We wish it well.
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