The sun came out for NBC’s “Annie Live!” Thursday, which drew 5.155 million total viewers last night, according to preliminary Nielsen numbers. That places the live musical ninth of out the 11 live-TV musicals from recent years. Its 0.9 rating in the key demo of adults 18-49 puts “Annie Live!” dead last.
It’s important to note here that “Annie Live!” did well up against its fierce primetime competition, between Fox’s “Thursday Night Football” and ABC’s emotional interview with Alec Baldwin about the tragic death on the set of the movie “Rust.”
Also, “Annie” crushed the ratings put up by NBC’s year-ago holiday musical event, “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical!” starring Matthew Morrison. That special, which was prerecorded, averaged a 0.6 rating among adults 18-49 and 2.5 million total viewers when it aired Dec. 10.
So while “Annie Live!” is closer to the bottom (dollar) of the ratings rankings for broadcast’s modern-era, live-TV musicals, that is in large part due to the fact that ratings across all of television have been steadily declining in recent years.
See how broadcast TV’s previous modern-era live musicals stacked up against “Annie Live!” here.
The “Annie” performance aired live for the east coast from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. It was tape-delayed to occupy the same primetime slot out west. While these early Nielsen numbers are always subject to some adjustment, the fact that “Annie” was not live coast-to-coast makes them a little less volatile.
Meanwhile, Baldwin’s emotional ABC interview about the tragic occurrence on the set of his movie “Rust” drew 4.13 million total viewers from 8 to 9 p.m. With football on Fox and a strong performance from CBS’ comedies, the Baldwin interview came in fourth in total viewers.
Due to the nature of live programming, the below numbers for Fox and NBC (which had “Annie Live!” on live on the east coast) should be considered subject to some adjustment when final results come in.
Fox was first in ratings with a 2.9 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 11.3 million, according to preliminary numbers. The rating and total-viewer tally were earned by the Dallas Cowboys at New Orleans Saints “Thursday Night Football” game, which ran throughout primetime.
NBC was second in ratings with a 0.9 and in viewers with 5.2 million, all thanks to the airing of “Annie Live!” from 8-11 p.m.
CBS was third in ratings with a 0.4 and in viewers with 4.7 million. At 8, “Young Sheldon” received a 0.6 and 6.4 million viewers. “United States of Al” at 8:30 got a 0.4 and 4.5 million viewers. “Ghosts” at 9 took a 0.5 and 5.3 million viewers. At 9:30, “B Positive” had a 0.4 and 4 million viewers. “Bull” at 10 settled for a 0.3 and 4 million viewers.
ABC tied with Univision for fourth in ratings, both with a 0.3. ABC was fourth in viewers with 2.6 million and Univision was fifth with 1.2 million.
For ABC, from 8-9, Baldwin’s interview got the above-mentioned 4 million viewers and a 0.4 rating. “The Great Christmas Light Fight” from 9-11 managed a 0.3 and 1.8 million viewers.
Telemundo was sixth in ratings with a 0.2 and in viewers with 733,000.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.1 and in viewers with 648,000. At 8, “Walker” opened the night with a 0.1 and 930,000 viewers. At 9, “Legacies” closed things up with a 0.1 and 366,000 viewers.