E!'s Bruce Jenner special gives 'Kardashians' a 40% ratings bump
Sunday's Part one of the specials dubbed "Keeping Up With the Kardashians: About Bruce" brought in 2.92 million total viewers, according to TheWrap. That represents a 40% increase over the previous Sunday's episode audience of 2.09 viewers.
The series also attracted 1.15 million viewers in the younger-skewing Adults, aged 18 to 34 years old, also a 40% bump over the previous episode. Furthermore, it scored a 33% increase in the group most popular with advertisers, Adults 18-49 and the older-skewing 25-54 year old demo.
The ratings for Part 2, which aired on Monday, are not yet available.
These were much-needed increases for the series, which seems to have shored up a trend of audience decline in recent seasons.
The current 10th season premiered on March 15 and held steady with the previous season's premiere with 2.55 million total viewers. That could be attributed to curiosity surrounding Bruce and Kris's recently finalized divorce and reports of Bruce's transition to a woman at the time.
On "About Bruce," E! airs several intimate meetings between the former Olympian and his family that took place in January. Emotions are still very raw as Bruce was still planning his transition and had yet to shoot the Diane Sawyer interview for ABC. It would air on April 28 to an audience of 17.1 million viewers.