ESPN earned a 1.8 U.S. rating and 2.746 million viewers for the premiere of "Fab Five" on Sunday night from 9:00-11:00pm ET, marking the net's highest-rated and most-viewed documentary ever. The previous high was 2.517 million viewers for the premiere of "Pony Excess" last December, which was the final film in the "30 for 30" series (Austin Karp, THE DAILY). In St. Petersburg, Tom Jones wrote the "outstanding documentary about this polarizing team was intriguing and, at times, disturbing as these young men became the targets of racism." The film not only depicted "America's view of the Michigan players, but the players' view of America" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 3/14). In Detroit, Jamie Samuelsen wrote a really good documentary can teach viewers things "about a subject that you thought you knew about" or change your opinion of "something that you had a pretty strong opinion on already." The film accomplished both, and it was a "very entertaining two hours of TV." However, the documentary "reinforced the image of Chris Webber," who was the only member of the team who did not agree to be interviewed for the project. He came across "as an extremely talented, extremely sheltered and extremely naive young man. ... Nothing was ever his fault" (FREEP.com, 3/14).
