Why’d They Bomb? Live TV Musicals

[TMC]

https://lebeauleblog.com/2019/07/10/...e-tv-musicals/

When The Sound of Music Live premiered on NBC, reviews were mixed to say the least but it was a huge hit in the ratings, getting 18.5 million viewers.

NBC’s follow up, Peter Pan Live, was not so lucky, getting only 9.1 million viewers. But The Wiz Live, while it didn’t do as well as Sound of Music, was a bit of an improvement, getting 11.5 million viewers and it did set a record for being the special that got the most tweets. So everything seemed good right? Well then Hairspray Live got the same ratings Peter Pan Live did, getting only 9 million viewers. There was no live musical from NBC in 2017 but their live musicals came back in 2018 with Jesus Christ Superstar, which made about the same numbers Peter Pan and Hairspray did, getting 9.4 million viewers.

While NBC never regained all the viewers from Sound of Music, Fox thought these were at least successful enough to capitalize on. And their first attempt, Grease Live, did well, getting 12.81 million viewers. Then they made a live-ish (as it was pre-taped but looked like it was being performed live) version of Rocky Horror.

And the ratings were not good. It only managed to get 4.9 million viewers. The following year, Fox made A Christmas Story Live and it did slightly worse, getting only 4.5 million viewers.

Then Rent Live came out and it only got 3.42 million viewers.

Rent Live hasn’t been a complete franchise killer but Fox has announced that, if they do another live musical, it’ll probably be an original musical while NBC has announced they’re only going to do these musicals if their’s one that they know will be profitable. From now on, they won’t do one every year.

So what happened? How did these live musicals go from being events to ratings killers at a rate faster than Thanos killing half the universe?

Look at the two highest rated live musicals, The Sound of Music and Grease! These are plays that are huge. They’ve been in the pop culture for decades and also have movies that are even more popular than the stage versions they were based off of. The songs and characters of The Sound of Music and Grease! have become so ingrained in pop culture that many people who weren’t born when either movie was in theaters is familiar with both movies. They are basically the live action equivalents of Disney Animated Musicals, musicals that are ingrained so much in pop culture that even most people who hate musicals with a passion wouldn’t look twice if you mentioned them positively.

Knowing that, it’s not that surprising that they did well in the ratings.

Look at the other live musicals. Peter Pan and The Wiz are moreso known for their gimmicks (a lady playing a little boy for the former and The Wiz for its all black cast for the latter) than they are known for their music or overall quality. Then there’s Rocky Horror, Hairspray, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Rent, which are all well known but play more to a niche audience than the general public. And A Christmas Story Live was based off of a musical that not many people have heard of that’s also based off of a movie that many people are sick of.

Knowing that, it’s also not surprising these did quite as well as Sound of Music and Grease did.

But I think it runs deeper than, just, some of these musicals are more popular than others.

When The Sound of Music Live came out, there hadn’t been many live shows on TV in years. So it was something new, something special, which I think garnered a lot of interest, which is why it got so many views.

But after they started making so many live musicals, it just wasn’t that special anymore and people lost interest quickly. When something relies on a gimmick, it’s hard to get people to pay attention more than once, despite its quality. Just look at The Lego Movies. The Lego Movie was a hit, The Lego Batman Movie was also a hit, albeit not as big, but The Lego Ninjago Movie didn’t do well and The Lego Movie 2 was a massive disappointment.

It’s just hard for people to really care after a while, once they’ve seen the gimmick, they’ve had their fix and move on with their lives.

But what didn’t help the live musicals is that they vary in quality. Even though it got 18 million viewers, many people did not like The Sound of Music. Peter Pan was a disaster critically, even leading to memes and YouTube videos making fun of it.



The Wiz was a bit of a comeback, and it was well received but, even though got slightly more viewers, I think it only helped so much.

When Grease Live premiered on Fox, and that one was well received too, it seemed like these live musicals were actually getting good. Then Rocky Horror Live-ish happened. It got terrible reviews from critics and the people who did watch it hated it.

Hairspray Live was well received but, considering ratings were close to Peter Pan‘s, I think Rocky Horror Kinda Live did convince some people to stay away as, regardless of whether or not it was good, one more bad attempt was enough to make some people tentative to see another one.

Then A Christmas Story Live made things worse. It also was received terribly from critics and audiences and that, coupled with the terrible reception Fox’s previous live musical received, was enough for people to stay away. Airing the same night as a football game didn’t help its case.

Jesus Christ Superstar was well reviewed, and even won a primetime emmy, but the ratings were more or less consistent with NBC’s musicals post-Sound of Music.

And then there was Rent Live…? Rent Live (I guess?) got a lot of critique from people when, thanks to an actor injuring his foot, it turned out not to be live after all and was, instead, mostly pre-taped, with only a few scenes being live. While reviews were at least better than Fox’s last two attempts at making a live musical, the damage was done. People just don’t trust Fox’s live musicals anymore because they made one people liked and the rest of them were hated by, well, everyone.

And, while NBC’s live musical ratings have been more or less consistent (with The Sound of Music being the exception), FOX’s disastrous handling of their live musicals, as well as the low ratings they receive, have been enough to put the future of live musicals into question.

So really, it’s thanks to the likes of Peter Pan, Rocky Horror, and A Christmas Story that these live musicals were an experiment that didn’t entirely work. And, right now, who knows if we’ll see another one anytime soon.

[Hawkee]

Why live TV musicals have become huge is because people are huge musical fans and for those people who can't afford to go on a trip to New York to go attend a Broadway show in person live TV musicals are the next best thing. I bet you when you were a kid you probably watched the live TV musical of Peter Pan with Mary Martin and being amazed by it's songs and magic or watching the live TV musical of Rodgers And Hammerstein's Cinderella with Julie Andrews and being swept away by it's talented cast. But as the Christmas season comes around the stations think live TV musicals are a way to entertain families. Take for instance TNT had a version of Peter Pan with gymnast Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan in the 90's and it garnered huge ratings when it debuted because Peter Pan is such a classic story and it works in a live musical format. But if they made Cats Live or The Pirates Of Penzance Live or even Chess Live I can guarantee that they would be hits on TV. But what I think would be even better is if they were to make live TV musicals of popular kids books that the whole family can watch together like Roald Dahl's James And The Giant Peach and I bet James And The Giant Peach Live would score ratings in TV if it were made and James And The Giant Peach is such a wonderful story that could easily make a great live TV musical. I know this because when I was a kid I acted in my school's production of James And The Giant Peach and I have read the story twice and it's story makes a great musical. But as more live TV musicals are being made the live TV musical genre will continue to grow and expand
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