NBC's SOUND OF MUSIC Adds Additional 3 Million Viewers Following Rebroadcast

NBC's rebroadcast of The Sound of Music Live! delivered more than 3 million additional viewers, adding to the 18.4 million who tuned in to the initial presentation on Thursday, December 5th.

According to Zaptoit.com, the re-airing of the innovative live television event delivered 3.16 million viewers. As BWW recently reported the show had added close to three million viewers in the first three days of delayed viewing, bringing the total number of viewers to over 24 million.

NBC recently announced that they would undertake another live musical presentation next year after the December 5th broadcast earned big ratings for the network. The show dominated that Thursday evening with NBC's best 18-49 Thursday average, excluding sports, since the night of the "ER" finale. In total viewers, it was NBC's best Thursday average excluding sports since May 13, 2004.

The Sound of Music Live! starred Grammy winner Carrie Underwood as 'Maria,' Audra McDonald ("Private Practice"), who has won five Tony Awards and two Grammys, as Mother Abbess; Stephen Moyer ("True Blood"), as Capt. Georg von Trapp; Tony Award winner Christian Borle ("Smash"), who portrayed von Trapp family friend Max Detweiler; and Tony winner Laura Benanti ("Go On"), who took on the role of Elsa Schrader, the captain's one-time fiancee.

The NBC television event, included studio recordings for all of the musical numbers that were performed by the cast members in the live broadcast, including Rodgers and Hammerstein favorites "The Sound of Music," "My Favorite Things," "Do-Re-Mi," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," among others.

Executive producers for the telecast were Neil Meron and Craig Zadan ("Smash," "The Academy Awards"). Directors are Rob Ashford ("Evita") and Beth McCarthy-Miller ("30 Rock"). David Chase ("Cinderella") served as musical director.

Photo credit: Will Hart/NBC