Oprah’s Lance Armstrong interview seen by 28 million worldwide

An estimated 28 million viewers around the world watched Oprah Winfrey’s high-profile interview with cyclist Lance Armstrong on television and online platforms.

Telecasts of the interview on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, in the U.S. on Thursday and Friday nights attracted about 12 million viewers, the cable channel said in a statement Tuesday. OWN said an additional 15 million viewers around the world watched Armstrong’s confessional interview, which was conducted last week in an Austin, Texas, hotel.

Discovery Communications, Winfrey’s programming partner, broadcast the interview on channels it owns internationally. The interview played in 190 countries, including Australia, France, Belgium and South Africa, and in 30 languages.

OWN said an estimated 800,000 additional viewers watched online streams.

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Friday’s final hourlong installment of the interview attracted 2.4 million viewers. An estimated 1.8 million viewers watched the program at 9 p.m. ET on Friday, and an additional 620,000 viewers watched an encore edition later in the evening.

The first part of the interview, televised on Thursday night, averaged 4.3 million viewers from its two airings, according to Nielsen data.

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