NBC, Carrie Underwood win big with ‘The Sound of Music Live,’ even against ‘Big Bang Theory’

At the moment, there is definitely a reason for NBC to sing a happy tune. The ratings are in for “The Sound of Music Live,” and the represent one of the best performances that NBC has had in ages on Thursday night. Not only were the numbers massive, but they were tied in the preliminary figures with “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS in the most-important demo. Even if not everyone loved the performance of Carrie Underwood, the three-hour spectacular has proven itself now to be something that we are sure the network will revisit in subsequent years in hopes of drawing similar sort of viewing figures.

Overall, a total of 18.6 million people caught the musical, and the 4.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic marks the first time that the nerdy sitcom on CBS has tied or lost in its spot since the days of “American Idol” being much more of a dominant ratings force. This is also a good four times better than what NBC has going on most of the time Thursdays, which should be a sign that if you put something on TV that people actually are interested in seeing, they will check it out.

“The Sound of Music” did end up causing some problems for other shows in primetime. “The Vampire Diaries” dropped down to a 1.0, “Grey’s Anatomy” fell to a 2.4, and “Glee” barely improved on last week’s thanksgiving episode on its way to a 1.1. Basically, This was proof that it is very hard to compete against something that is not only billed as a live event, but has an iconic musical behind it and some major star power in a former “American Idol” winner.

With all of this in mind, don’t expect it to take long for NBC to announce that they will be doing this again, either in the summer or possibly during the holiday season once again in 2014.

Photo: NBC