‘The Wiz Live!’ equals ratings gold for NBC, smashes ‘Peter Pan’

By Chris Witherspoon

·December 4, 2015

For many black households across the country, last night felt like the Super Bowl, as folks tuned in for the long-awaited premiere of NBC’s The Wiz Live!

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. The 3-hour broadcast wasn’t just a hit on social media; it proved to be NBC’s highest-rated Thursday night in years.

According to Variety, The Wiz Live! averaged roughly a 3.3 rating/11 share in adults 18-49 and about 11.1 million viewers overall from 8 to 11 p.m.

The Wiz Live! was also a major success on social media. “Global digital marketing technology company Amobee Brand Intelligence said The Wiz Live! attracted 1.374 million tweets during its three-hour telecast window — more than four times the number generated last year during the live telecast of Peter Pan Live,” Variety reports.

NBC says 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).

279,400 people sent 1.6 million tweets about The Wiz Live! on 12/3/15 and 6.4 million people saw those Tweets a total of 128.9 million times.

Last year NBC’s Peter Pan Live received roughly 9.2 million total viewers, while 2013’s the Sound of Music scored a whopping 18.6 million total viewers.

Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC.