Over 44 Million Tuned in to NBC's SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE Including Encore + DVRs

In "live plus seven day" results, NBC's Dec. 5 telecast of "The Sound of Music Live" delivered a 5.62 rating in adults 18-49 and 21.837 million viewers overall, adding to the enormous audience the show attracted with its live telecast to make "The Sound of Music Live!" the #1 telecast on all of television for that Dec. 2-8 week in total viewers.

Excluding sports, it's NBC's most-watched Thursday since the night of the "Frasier" finale (22.597 million on May 13, 2004).

A total of 38.696 million viewers watched at least a portion of the Dec. 5 telecast of "The Sound of Music Live!"

Including "live plus three day" results for the Dec. 14 encore, a total of 44.183 million viewers have watched at least a portion of NBC's telecasts of "The Sound of Music Live!"

The presentation starred Grammy winner Carrie Underwood as 'Maria,' Audra McDonald ("Private Practice"), who has won five Tony Awards and two Grammys, as Mother Abbess; Stephen Moyer ("True Blood"), as Capt. Georg von Trapp; Tony Award winner Christian Borle ("Smash"), who portrayed von Trapp family friend Max Detweiler; and Tony winner Laura Benanti ("Go On"), who took on the role of Elsa Schrader, the captain's one-time fiancee.

The NBC television event, included studio recordings for all of the musical numbers that were performed by the cast members in the live broadcast, including Rodgers and Hammerstein favorites "The Sound of Music," "My Favorite Things," "Do-Re-Mi," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," among others.

Executive producers for the telecast were Neil Meron and Craig Zadan ("Smash," "The Academy Awards"). Directors are Rob Ashford ("Evita") and Beth McCarthy-Miller ("30 Rock"). David Chase ("Cinderella") served as musical director.

Photo credit: Will Hart/NBC

NOTE: Results are based on viewing data from Nielsen Media Research