'The Wiz Live' eases down the (ratings) road
The Wiz Live!, NBC's latest live musical extravaganza, scored solid if not spectacular ratings Thursday.
The nearly three-hour television production attracted 11.5 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen figures. That's up from last year's Peter Pan Live!, which drew just 9.2 million, but well below 2013's The Sound of Music Live!, which starred Carrie Underwood and drew a whopping 18.6 milion. Among adults ages 18 to 49, Wiz won a 3.3 rating, up from a 2.4 for Pan but below Music's 4.6.
The Wiz — whose buzzworthy cast included veteran artists Queen Latifah (Oz) and Mary J. Blige (Wicked Witch of the West) as well as Orange is the New Black breakout Uzo Aduba (Glinda the Good Witch) and 19-year-old newcomer Shanice Williams (Dorothy) — was among the year's top TV social media events, at least on Twitter. Excluding awards shows and political events, The Wiz was the most live-tweeted program since Nielsen Social began tracking Twitter TV activity in October 2011, with about 1.6 million tweets about the show, more than tripling NBC’s previous live specials.
NBC will air an encore of the production on Saturday, Dec. 19 from 8-11 p.m. ET.