In the key demo of adults 18-49, the live musical scored a 3.4 rating, which is almost triple NBC’s season average rating on Thursday nights (excluding sports) and beat “Peter Pan” (2.4) by 42 percent. With ‘The Wiz Live!’ being the best-reviewed live musical that NBC has ever aired, producers are now talking about bringing the show to Broadway next year.
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If you missed the live broadcast, NBC will be airing The Wiz again on December 19, 2015 at 8pm.
Virginia Sherwood/AP (from l.) Ne-Yo stars as the Tin Man, Williams as Dorothy and Elijah Kelley as the Scarecrow during a dress rehearsal of “The Wiz Live!”. It was the Peacock Network’s best Thursday since 2010-apart from Carrie Underwood’s big night, of course.
The Wiz Live starred Queen Latifah, David Alan Grier, Common, and newcomer Shanice Williams. The Wiz was seen by 11.5 million viewers, up from Peter Pan’s 9.2 million. There was much online discussion about “The Wiz” having an all-black cast from people who may have been unaware that the 1970s-era musical and movie had a black cast, too.
NBC is going back down the yellow brick road.
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With delayed and on-demand viewing becoming more the norm in TV households across the country, NBC’s “The Wiz” showed that live TV can still bring in a big audience.
