TV Ratings: ‘Rent’ on Fox Puts Up Lowest Ratings Ever for Live Musical

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Fox’s live staging of “Rent” on Sunday night delivered the lowest ratings ever for a live broadcast musical.

In the overnight ratings, “” averaged a 1.4 rating in adults 18-49 and 3.4 million viewers. That is below previous last place holder, “A Christmas Story Live,” which drew a 1.5 rating and 4.5 million viewers for in December 2017. It is also a far cry from the highest-rated live broadcast musical to date, NBC’s 2013 version of “Sound of Music.” That show drew a 4.6 rating and 18.6 million viewers.

Nevertheless, “Rent” was one of the highest-rated programs of the night in the key demo, with the show beating out its broadcast competition in each individual hour of its three hour run time.

The ratings also come after “Rent” cast member Brennin Hunt broke his foot just hours before showtime, forcing Fox to rely on pre-taped segments of the show recorded at a dress rehearsal on Saturday night.

Elsewhere for the night, “Celebrity Big Brother” (1.0, 4.8 million) was even on CBS, while “NCIS: Los Angeles” (0.8, 6.7 million) and “Madam Secretary” (0.6, 5.4 million) saw small declines week-to-week.

On ABC, “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (1.3, 6.5 million) was steady, followed by two new episodes of “Shark Tank” at 9 (1.1, 4.5 million) and 10 (1.0, 3.8 million).

On The CW, “Supergirl” (0.3,1.4 million) was up in total viewers while “Charmed” (0.3, 0.89 million) was up in the demo.