National Bandstand and Vince Fontaine were right: Rydell High was ready for its live TV close up. Paramount Television's highly-acclaimed, BREAKTHROUGH hit GREASE: LIVE delivered more than 17 million total viewers worldwide since it originally aired this past Sunday, Jan. 31. The special telecast, starring Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit and Vanessa Hudgens delivered 14.3 million viewers on FOX (including L+3); 1.7 million viewers on CTV Canada; 666,000 viewers on ITV2 UK; and 590,000 viewers on Channel 9 in Australia.
In the key demos, GREASE: LIVE scored above a 5.0 in both P18-49 and P25-54 demos (L+3). Also in L+3, GREASE: LIVE scored a 4.82 for Total Persons (P2+) reaching an average total audience of 14.3 million people and holds its spot as highest rated P12-24 live musical.
The landmark production was executive produced by acclaimed film, television and theater producer Marc Platt (Bridge of Spies, Wicked, Into the Woods) and directed by Tony Award-nominated Thomas Kail (Hamilton, In the Heights) who oversaw the stage direction with Alex Rudzinski (Dancing with the Stars) as the live television director. The live television adaptation, written by Broadway writers Robert Cary (Anything but Love, Ira & Abby) and Jonathan Tolins (Buyer & Cellar, The Last Sunday in June), draws upon both the original 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey and Paramount's 1978 feature film adaptation. Tony Award winning costume designer William Ivey Long, "Hamilton" set designer David Korins and choreographer Zach Woodlee (Glee, Annie) round out the creative team. The special also featured two new original songs, composed by Tom Kitt with lyrics by Brian Yorkey.
"Paramount Television is incredibly proud to have produced this groundbreaking event," said Amy Powell, President, Paramount Television. "Tommy, Marc and Alex and our incredible cast, writers and crew, are the best in class. Collectively, their creative vision successfully combined the spirit of Broadway, TV and Cinema in a way that hasn't been done before, all while living up to the iconic legacy of GREASE. From the get-go, the sheer fun we had in creating and producing this project was phenomenal. The audience sensed the excitement and energy and responded in kind."
GREASE: LIVE also ranks as the #1 most social live musical event ever, based on unique authors and impressions on social media - outranking the Sound of Music Live!, Peter Pan Live!, and The Wiz Live! according to Nielsen. People sent 1.3 million Tweets about GREASE: LIVE since it aired on 1/31/16 and those Tweets were seen a total of 179.2 million times (Source: Nielsen, 24/7 Data, 1/31/15 - 2/3/16).
"We are all so thrilled and overwhelmed by the reception GREASE: LIVE has received," said Marc Platt, Executive Producer. "For Tommy, Alex, and the rest of our brilliant creative team, crew and cast, GREASE was a joyful experience. We are beyond delighted that audiences around the world are experiencing the same joy watching GREASE: LIVE that we had in making the show."
Director Thomas Kail added, "Our show was a love letter to the thrill of live performing. We wanted to make a show that celebrated all the people that work off-screen and on-screen to create live entertainment. It was an honor to have been trusted with this remarkable musical and we are thrilled that it resonated with audiences. I hope the viewers at home had just as much fun watching it as we did making it. On behalf of this extraordinary cast and crew, thank you for joining us at Rydell High!"
On iTunes, GREASE: LIVE, swiftly climbed to the top of charts following the East Coast broadcast on
FOX Sunday night, with all 16 individual tracks charting on the iTunes soundtrack genre Top 100 songs chart. The soundtrack has remained at #1 on the iTunes soundtracks chart since it landed in the top spot right before the show's East Coast airing on Sunday night. At one point this week, the top 5 songs on the soundtracks songs chart were all from GREASE: LIVE and Jordan Fisher's song, "Those Magic Changes," is a breakout fan favorite, charting within the Top 50 overall songs chart and No. 1 on soundtracks genre songs chart.
GREASE: LIVE is scheduled to air in the following territories: MediaWorks TV3 in New Zealand on Feb 5th at 7:30pm and channel FEM in Norway on Feb 7th at 9pm. Later in the month, the show will air on TV2 Denmark and in Spain on Canal+ Estrenos. In addition, Paramount WW Television Licensing & Distribution has sold the show to RAI 4 Italy where it will air on March 3rd at 9:10pm and SVT in Sweden (broadcast dates to be announced). GREASE: LIVE is now available on Digital HD and coming to DVD March 8, 2016 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.
About Paramount Television Paramount Television develops and finances a wide range of creative television programming across all media platforms. Paramount Television is part of Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. PPC is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), a global content company with premier television, film and digital entertainment brands.
Photo courtesy of FOX
