IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE Is Ratings Winner for NBC

From 8-11 p.m., an encore telecast of the 1946 movie classic "It's a Wonderful Life" (1.5/6 in 18-49, 5.6 million viewers) ranked #1 for the night among ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in adults 18-49, total viewers and all other key ratings categories.

* It's the #1 theatrical movie on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox so far this season in total viewers and tied for #1 in adults 18-49 (with CBS's December 15 airing of "Elf"). It's also the biggest overall audience for a telecast of "It's a Wonderful Life" since Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005.

* Versus its year-ago telecast on Saturday, Dec. 24. 2011, "It's a Wonderful Life" is up 16 percent in total viewers (5.616 million vs. 4.828 million) and even in 18-49 rating.

* This is NBC's 34th primetime run of "It's a Wonderful Life," directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart, since the movie was brought to broadcast network television in 1994.

NOTE: All ratings are "live plus same day" from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise indicated.

It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story "The Greatest Gift", written by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1939, and privately published by the author in 1945.[3] The film is considered one of the most loved films in American cinema, and has become traditional viewing during the Christmas season, comparably to film adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Released in 1946, the film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community would be had he never been born.

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