TV Ratings: 'Rent' Is Fox's Lowest-Rated Musical

The Hollywood Reportet ^ | January 28, 2019 | Rick Porter

[C19fan]

The not-quite-live performance comes in at the low end of the decade's trend of televised musicals. Fox's staging of Rent underperformed Sunday night, drawing ratings at the bottom of the list of TV musicals aired in recent years.

Sunday's performance — which consisted largely of pre-filmed footage from Saturday's dress rehearsal after star Brennin Hunt broke his foot near the end of the run-through — posted a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 and 3.42 million viewers over its three-hour running time. Those are the smallest numbers for any of the four musicals Fox has aired since 2016.

[Buckeye McFrog]

after star Brennin Hunt broke his foot

Ladies and Gentleman, for tonight's performance the role of Roger Davis will be played by Gordon Ramsay...

[wbill]

I saw the live broadcast of "Peter Pan". Christopher Walken as Captain Hook? Holy Cow, what a perfect casting selection. There's no WAY it could stink.

Nope, it stunk. Completely un-watchable.

Wife was watching another live musical a couple of years back, don't remember what it was. I watched for about 5 minutes and walked out of the room.

Haven't looked at one since. Looks like I'm not the only one.

[ObozoMustGo2012]

[I wonder if we’ll ever see a Blazing Saddles musical, like they did with The Producers and Young Frankenstein.]

I’d prefer they not, for the same fears that they will water down the intent and humor of the original movie... the same thing they did to Young Frankenstein.

[Boogieman]

[SMGFan]

525,600 viewers

[ExNewsExSpook]

The suits at ABC must laugh every time they see the numbers for “America’s Funniest Videos.” The show is dirt-cheap to produce (especially since Tom Bergeron gave up hosting duties), and matches or exceeds ratings for more expensive shows on the other networks. Wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the production budget for Fox’s production of “Rent” was higher than the entire season of AFV. And I’d guess the weekly fest of cat videos and suburbanites getting hit in the crotch was far more entertaining than “Rent.”

[C19fan]

I am shocked in an era of YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, AFV is still a viable show.

[outpostinmass2]

I like Rent for the fact I didn’t take my wife to another Broadway Show for 20 years. It was so awful it turned her off from that type of entertainment for 2 decades.

[Yaelle]

Even Mel Brooks says it can’t be done today.

We shall hope to survive the pendulum swinging, where it’s funny to not be a snowflake.

[dfwgator]

It's so bad, it should have been hosted by Leonard Pinth-Garnell.....

[I_be_tc]

Is that the new one coming out about Hillary Clinton? Does it explain her extraordinary fragrance? Maybe too many Golden Showers in Russian hotels.

[RooRoobird20]

It’s so bad, it should have been hosted by Leonard Pinth-Garnell.....

---

Bad Theatre, LMAO!!!

That was a long time ago, when SNL was actually funny.

[Zathras]

There are very few musicals or plays that I don’t like.
RENT ... I want my life back.

[x]

The author/composer died the day before previews started.

So I guess he didn't have time to do any revisions.

And his dying may have been one reason the show got those awards.

But in recent years any new musical that has memorable tunes is a valued novelty.

There are so few, that it's not surprising that when one comes along, people fall all over it.

[political1]

7 second delay from the network. Digital delay in transmission. Pixelation delay after transmission. Commercial lead in and lead out pre recorded. Beginning credits and ending credits preset. Plus they pre recorded sections of the play that they didn't think would translate well for television. What's live about it. You could get pretty much real time with the old analog transmission. The picture would be a little fuzzy though. Have to adjust the rabbit ears. They need to bring back that type of transmission. At least then they really could say it was live.

[TBP]

They thought that with the rock score, it would appeal to a demographic that doesn't usually tune in. It didn't. Next time, try a more traditional "classic" musical. The Music Man, for example, is just waiting for someone to do it.

[TBP]

I do rather like “Seasons of Love.”

[TBP]

It also won because Jonathan Larson, who wrote it, died the night before it opened.

[TBP]

They had to change a lyric in one of the songs from Company when it got revived.

[TBP]

That guy looks like Dan Aykroyd.