OK, it’s officially not too early to call “The Wiz Live!” a mega-hit for NBC. The special has earned that exclamation point.
The Shanice Williams musical was not only a stud in Thursday night’s ratings, it’s now the most-tweeted live special program in Nielsen history. That excludes awards shows and political events, and dates back to October 2011.
Plus, “The Wiz Live!” very comfortably topped its predecessors “The Sound of Music Live!” and “Peter Pan Live!” combined in terms of total tweets.
Last night, 279,363 people sent 1.64 million tweets about “The Wiz Live!,” which were seen by 6.37 million people a total of 128.95 million times.
Last year, “Peter Pan Live!” saw 199,621 users send 450,000 tweets. They were seen by 5.26 million people a total of 68.73 million times.
In December 2013, “The Sound of Music Live” experienced 147,212 Twitter subscribers posting 474,735 tweets, which were witnessed by 5.32 million people a total of 106.86 million times.
Based purely on tweet totals, that means “The Wiz” bested the other two combined NBC options by a massive 44 percent.
Unfortunately, not all of the related social media use was particularly kind, even if the production was generally well-reviewed. Twitter experienced a bunch of “racist” tweets last night, which you can read about here and here.
In case you haven’t heard, Nielsen also measures traditional TV ratings. Click here for “The Wiz’s” fast national numbers, which counted 11.1 million total viewers for the special. Read about the earlier metered market figures here.