'Why are there no whites?': The Wiz Live draws huge numbers for NBC with over 11million viewers desp

[Journeyman]

6. 11 million viewers, 1.6 million tweets -- 85% of which were positive . . .

Tweets don't actually make a network money (yet), but they do constitute one way for a network to gauge the populace's reaction to its programming. The analytics firm Brandwatch not only tracks tweet volume but also categorizes sentiment. NBC's previous two live musicals, 2014's "Peter Pan" and 2013's "The Sound of Music" were marked by copious Twitter snark, with viewers making fun of everything from the trippy crocodile puppets on "Peter Pan" to the fact that everybody but Carrie Underwood (playing nun-turned-governess-turned-wife Maria) had an accent on "The Sound of Music."

This year, though, 85 percent of the tweets about "The Wiz Live!" were positive, according to Brandwatch.

The ratings for "The Wiz Live!" bear out the tweets-don't-equal-ratings maxim. While the tweet volume for "The Wiz" was more than triple that of "The Sound of Music," the former was outrated by the latter to the tune of 7 million total viewers.

Yet that's not to say there weren't intangible benefits for the network and, possibly, society. "The Wiz Live!" had an all-black cast, putting an end to NBC's streak of monochromatic productions, and Twitter noticed:

I don't even think NBC realizes the gift it gave our little black girls tonight #TheWizLive
7:44 PM - 3 Dec 2015

http://www.ibtimes.com/nbcs-wiz-live-dropped-house-twitter-16-million-tweets-during-show-2213078

That's all mighty impressive, a cultural accomplishment we could choose to celebrate . . .