But the buzz wasn’t all good; the show also sparked a racial controversy online.
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As anyone with a pulse should have expected, NBC’s The Wiz Live! was a huge hit.
With The Wiz Live having proven to be an across-the-board success after airing Thursday, Dec. 3, on the network, the show’s producers are now admitting that their 2014 effort didn’t quite soar.
The musical brought in over 11.5 million viewers and managed to top Peter Pan Live that premiered previous year and raked in 9.1 million viewers.
Even so, “Wiz Live!” delivered a strong enough performance to probably ensure future live-musical telecasts on NBC. The nearly three-hour television production attracted 11.5 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen figures.”The Wiz” eased on down the road to excellent ratings.The Sound of Music Live!
There’s no place like live TV.
That said, both recent NBC musicals had to compete with CBS’ “Thursday Night Football”.
Apparently viewers would rather spend their night with Uzo Aduba, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, and the rest of the star-studded cast, instead of watching Christopher Walken’s cringe-worthy Captain Hook dance sequence.
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“‘The Wiz’ is by far NBC’s most sophisticated live musical broadcast yet; it’s also one that felt, movingly, of its time”, wrote Daniel D’Addario, Time’s TV critic.
