NBC Slays in Ratings With ‘The Wiz Live’ But Sparks Racial Controversy
NBC executives breathed a sigh of relief this morning when they received the overnight ratings for “The Wiz Live!”. But will the TV cast be included in the new production? Check out all of their major musical numbers from the broadcast, in chronological order, below.
And NBC has a variety of others ways to make even more money off “The Wiz”: The cast recording goes on sale December 11, with a DVD following shortly thereafter, and the network has already scheduled an encore airing December 19.
“In kids 2-11 (3.2 rating), “The Wiz Live!” generated NBC’s highest-rated night for any night of the week, excluding sports, in 11 years, since November 22, 2004 (3.2 with a special Thanksgiving “Fear Factor” and “$25 Million Dollar Hoax”) and matching NBC’s top non-sports night among kids since the night of the “Friends” series finale, May 6, 2004 (5.5).
The Wiz Live! was also a major success on social media.
Last year, “Peter Pan Live!” saw 199,621 users send 450,000 tweets.
Two years ago, NBC surprised the television industry by reaching 18.6 million people for its production of “The Sound of Music” with Carrie Underwood. “We should think it through and figure out what the next choice should be in the progression of, ‘What do you follow The Wiz with so we can keep moving forward and not backward?'”
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