‘The Wiz Live’ eases on down the road to big ratings

As anyone with a pulse should have expected, NBC’s The Wiz Live! was a huge hit. After its last two live musical efforts were met with mixed-to-negative reviews, “The Wiz Live!” managed to unite viewers in a way that didn’t rely upon snark or general curmudgeonry.

For those of you who missed out on this round of Wiz-watching, there will be an encore on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 8:00 p.m. on NBC. The broadcast drew in 11.5 million viewers, a huge increase over the network’s live presentation of Peter Pan a year ago. Last year’s version of “Peter Pan”, however, reached 9.1 million and producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said recently that they feared NBC wouldn’t want to do any more musicals if ratings for “The Wiz” weren’t better.

CBS: CBS’ special Thursday Night Football coverage of the Green Bay Packers’ shocking victory over the Detroit Lions averaged 12.5 million total viewers and a 3.3 demo rating, narrowly defeating The Wiz Live! in total viewers. In 2014, NBC surprised the television industry with an audience of 18.6 million people for a live production of “The Sound of Music” that starred Carrie Underwood.

The musical starring Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, and newcomer Shanice Williams was a ratings success for NBC, and it was celebrated on social media.