NBC posts new ‘Sound of Music Live’ numbers, continues to win big

At the moment, NBC has to believe that the hills are alive with the sound of money. “The Sound of Music Live” is still winning pretty big for them, and at a pace that would make almost any network jealous at this point.

In live+7 DVR data that came out today, it was revealed that more than 22 million people actually watched the special starring Carrie Underwood when it first aired earlier this month; this figure also translated into a 5.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is fantastic for a network that barely tends to draw over a 1.5 even when DVR numbers for some of their Thursday shows are considered.

This is where things get even crazier. When you factor in the three-day DVR numbers and live viewers for the Sunday repeat, over 44.1 million viewers caught the musical during its run. That is incredible, regardless of how you slice it. Even for some of you cynics out there who believe that some were watching only to mock it, that’s still a lot of viewers. We figure that NBC doesn’t care so much, since it’s not like they are planning a “Sound of Music 2.” When they make another musical (and they have already confirmed that this is in the plans), they will go with something new that has a similar sort of audience connection to people all around the country. We don’t believe that we will see the same sort of ratings unless they find an even bigger lead actor with a mainstream audience, and that will be a rather hard task.

But overall, this is the Christmas gift that keeps on giving for NBC, and the most successful night that they’ve had on Thursday since the “Frasier” finale nearly a decade ago.