‘Wiz Live!’ Viewed by 11.5 Million

Broadcast TV’s first live musical in years scored a 4.6 rating and a whopping 18.6 million viewers!

Did you tune into The Wiz Live!? For additional video content, click the “video” tab at the top of this page. However, this result is still down on Carrie Underwood’s The Sound of Music Live! in 2013, which drew a massive 18.5 million viewers overall.

Based on Tweets, The Wiz Live! is the #1 most social live special program since Nielsen Social began tracking Twitter TV activity in October 2011 (Source: Nielsen, excluding award shows and political events).

Young and old took to social media to react to their favorite moments from the musical, reminiscing on how the Broadway show or movie adaptation of The Wiz shaped their childhood. This Nov. 30, 2015, image released by NBC shows David Alan Grier as Lion, from left, Shanice Williams as Dorothy, Elijah Kelley as Scarecrow and Common as The Bouncer during a dress rehearsal of “The Wiz Live!’ in New Yo…”

We expect to hear an official go-ahead from NBC for another live December musical shortly. They were seen by 5.26 million people a total of 68.73 million times.

This bests the performance of last year’s musical Peter Pan Live, which got a 2.3 rating with adults 18 to 49 and 9.1 million viewers.