Fox’s ‘Rent’ Hits Live-Musical Ratings Low

Fox’s broadcast of a not-really-live Rent on Sunday finished with a 1.4 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 3.42 million viewers in early numbers, marking the lowest-rated of the broadcast networks’ musical event shows.

Still, the three-hour adaptation won in the demo in every half-hour (and was No. 1 in adults 18-34 and teen metrics) on a night of both original and repeat programming, tying ABC for the demo win. CBS won in viewers.

Rent, based on Jonathan Larson’s beloved ’90s Broadway musical, reverted to mostly rehearsal footage after star Brennin Hunt, who played struggling musician Roger, broke his foot during a dress rehearsal yesterday. The show went on, however, but still fell short of the previous low for a musical broadcast: Fox’s own A Christmas Story Live!, notched a 1.5 rating and and 4.48 million viewers in December 2017.

The most recent musical, NBC’s 2 1/2-hour Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert , won Easter Sunday 2018 in primetime with 9.6 million total viewers and a 1.7 rating in adults 18-49 in Live+Same Day. The biggest musical rating was the first of the genre’s revival: The Sound of Music Live! on NBC drew 18.6 million viewers and got a 4.6 rating in December 2013.

ABC kept pace demo-wise Sunday with America’s Funniest Home Videos (1.3 rating, 6.54M viewers),  seeing its best crowd in almost four years and staying even in the demo, and back-to-backs of Shark Tank (1.1, 4.48M at 9 PM, 1.0, 3.79M at 10). It finished second to CBS in viewers; CBS went with all original programming and had the night’s most watched show in 60 Minutes (1.1, 11.18M) at 7 PM, followed by Big Brother: Celebrity Edition (1.0, 4.76M and even in its Sunday debut), NCIS: Los Angeles (0.8, 6.70M) and Madam Secretary (0.6, 5.35M).

NBC, fourth overall in the demo and third in viewership, countered with a repeat The Titan Games followed by a two-hour American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. the World (0.7, 2.84M). It finished third in the hour and was off a chunk from last year’s special.

The CW had originals of Supergirl (0.3, 1.34M) and Charmed (0.3, 890,000), even and up a tenth, respectively.