Live musicals may soon be one of NBC’s favorite things after the Carrie Underwood-led adaptation of “The Sound of Music” notched major ratings wins for the Peacock Thursday night.

Underwood and co-star Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”) delivered NBC a 4.6 rating/13 share in the 18-49 adult demographic, making it the biggest non-sports Thursday since the “ER” finale in 2009.

And the 18.5 million overall viewers were the highest Thursday viewership for the network since “Frasier” signed off almost ten years ago in 2004.

NBC placed a pretty big bet on Underwood and Co., turning over the entire prime time programming window to the $9-million, three-hour telecast. And it seemed to pay off.

“What might be most impressive about The Sound of Music is how well it sustained its audience over the course of the lengthy telecast,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter‘s Michael O’Connell. “The show hit a high at 8:30 with a 5.0 rating in the demo, losing some viewers through the night and ultimately landing on a 4.2 with adults 18-49.”

The show also gave NBC its fifth nightly win in a row this week, the first time the Peacock has pulled that off on a non-Olympics week since 2002.

Online, NBC also won the social media war last night, with nearly 200,000 Twitter users sending 449,000 tweets about “Sound,” more than any other show Thursday. Nielsen says that tweets about the telecast were seen 68.7 million times.

For those keeping score, CBS came in second Tuesday night, helped by its comedy block of “The Big Bang Theory,” “The Millers,” “The Crazy Ones,” and Two and a Half Men.”

But ABC came in second in the 9-11pm window, helped by Shonda Rhimes’ workhorses “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal.”

And live music fans take heed: CBS is planning another big live event on Friday in the form of a concert announcing the nominees for this year’s Grammy Awards.

The New York Times’ Stuart Elliott reported Friday that “Sound” and the Grammy concert are part of the increasing push towards “big event” programming that compels viewers to tune in live, since live viewers remain more attractive to big-money advertisers.

Read More: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The New York Times, The Wrap

Brief Take: A live musical was an expensive and risky bet for NBC, but viewers showed that they’re willing to commit and tune into event programming.

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