ANNIE LIVE! Draws 5.2 Million Viewers

Annie Live!, NBC's latest live television musical, scored an average of 5.2 million viewers in its broadcast last night.

Deadline reports that early ratings show that the musical spectacular averaged on 5.16 million viewers, leading the non-NFL programming with a 0.9 demo rating.

The musical earned the second-highest rating of the night, performing above the current Thursday season average on NBC.

Out of NBC's live musical efforts, Annie Live places in second to last, with last year's Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical only pulling in 2.5 million viewers.

2013's Sound of Music Live leads with 18.6 million viewers, followed by The Wiz Live's 11.6 million. 2018's Jesus Christ Superstar boasted 9.6 million viewers, 2014's Peter Pan Live had 9.2 million viewers, and 2016's Hairspray Live drew in 9.1 million viewers.

The live holiday spectacular starred Celina Smith as Annie, Taraji P. Henson as Miss Hannigan, Harry Connick Jr. as Daddy Warbucks, Nicole Scherzinger as Grace, Tituss Burgess as Rooster and Megan Hilty as Lily St. Regis.

"Annie" is one of the most beloved and biggest hits in Broadway history and the winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It has been licensed and performed in 50 countries and translated into eight languages. Based on the Harold Gray comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" that debuted in 1924, the musical premiered on Broadway in 1977 and initially ran for over four years.

Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC