Does Hulu Have The Next 'Last Dance' With Los Angeles Lakers Docuseries?

The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most well-known pro sports teams of all time. The team is inspiring several television series including a newly announced docuseries from Hulu.

What Happened: Hulu is launching an untitled nine-part original docuseries. The series comes from Lakers CEO and controlling owner Jeanie Buss and Emmy Award-winning director Antoine Fuqua.

The series will look at four decades of the Lakers from the 1979 purchase of the team by Jerry Buss until the current LeBron James era.

Interview from over 35 players, coaches and team experts including Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kareem Abdul Jabbar will be featured. Never before seen interviews with Jerry Buss will also be featured.

The series doesn't have a release date set yet and could compete with another Lakers series already in the works. HBO, a unit of AT&T T, is launching a dramatic untitled series centered on the 1980s Lakers dynasty. The series is inspired by the book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.”

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Why It’s Important: The Lakers docuseries adds to a lineup from Hulu that includes original programming like “Hillary,” “I am Greta” and “Ask Dr. Ruth.”

Hulu ended the fourth quarter with 39.4 million total customers including 4 million SVOD and Hulu Live subscribers and 35.4 million SVOD subscribers.

Strong demand from sports fans could boost subscriber numbers to Hulu around the release of the Lakers docuseries. 

Hulu is majority-owned by the Walt Disney Co DIS, which owns 67%. Comcast Corporation CMCSA owns 33% and has the potential to sell its stake to Disney in the future. An analyst recently valued Hulu at $45 billion.

“The Last Dance,” a docuseries on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, was the most-watched ESPN documentary ever with an average of 5.6 million viewers each episode including 6.3 million for the series premiere.