It attracted less than half the audience of other recent December live musicals.
With NBC on the sidelines this year, Fox’s first live holiday musical—A Christmas Story Live!—couldn’t measure up to the ratings of other recent live musical broadcasts.
Sunday’s telecast drew 4.48 million total viewers—the lowest total of any broadcast show last night—and a 1.5 rating in the 18-49 demo.
Those numbers are considerably below the live-plus-same-day ratings for NBC’s Hairspray Live! last December, which drew 9 million viewers and a 2.3 in the demo. That production was the lowest-rated of NBC’s four holiday musicals since 2013.
A Christmas Story’s ratings were roughly one-third of the audience that Fox’s previous big live musical, Grease Live, attracted in January 2016. That telecast was viewed by 12.2 million viewers, and had a 4.3 demo rating; those numbers surpassed all of NBC’s recent live musical efforts except for The Sound of Music Live!, which reignited the trend in 2013.
Speaking of The Sound of Music, ABC’s rebroadcast of the 1965 Julie Andrews movie last night was watched by more viewers than A Christmas Story (4.54 million), though its demo rating (0.8) was nearly half of he Fox musical’s.
The NFL—which wasn’t competition that Grease Live faced nearly two years ago—drew the lion’s share of Sunday night viewers. NBC’s Sunday Night Football was watched by 16.75 million and a 5.2 demo rating (starting next season, NBC will be able to stream those games to mobile users), while CBS’ 4:25 games—most notably the New England Patriots’ comeback against the Pittsburgh Steelers—spilled into the 7 p.m. hour, just as A Christmas Story Live! was kicking off—with 27.97 million viewers and a 6.9 demo rating.
Fox had pulled out all the stops for its broadcast of A Christmas Story Live!, based on the 1983 classic film, which spawned a Broadway musical in 2012. Among its many ad innovations for the production, the network partnered with Old Navy for an extensive ad buy and integrations—including six-second ads—and aired a live commercial featuring a musical number from the cast of the upcoming film The Greatest Showman.
The live musicals have become a lucrative annual tradition for NBC. Last year’s Hairspray Live! generated an estimated $24.9 million, more than double The Sound of Music’s $11.2 million, according to Kantar Media. Grease Live brought in $15.7 million for Fox in January 2016.
While NBC sat out this year after postponing Bye Birdie Live! due to scheduling difficulties with star Jennifer Lopez, the network said it will be back in the mix in 2018. “Next Christmas, I guarantee you we will come back with a Christmas musical,” NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt told Adweek . “And I hope it’s Birdie. If that doesn’t work out, there are a handful of other musicals that we want to do.”
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Jason Lynch
@jasonlynch
Jason Lynch is Adweek’s senior editor for television, covering trends, technology, personalities and programming across broadcast, cable and streaming video. Formerly TV Editor for People magazine, he has been covering the TV and movie industries for more than a decade.
