Catch "A Muppets Christmas" Online
The Muppets made their big return to network television last night with the premiere of "A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa" on NBC. The hour-long television special involves the Muppets mistakenly intercepting three letters intended for Santa Claus and their odyssey to deliver the messages to the North Pole.
The Muppets proved extremely popular for NBC in the ratings. According to the Nielsen overnight estimates, the premiere of "A Muppet's Christmas: Letters to Santa" won its 8pm timeslot with a 4.1/7 share, attracting more than 7.44-million viewers. The special also ranked particularly high with adults (ages 18-49), winning the demographic with an average Nielsen rating of 2.4. "A Muppets Christmas" brought NBC's ratings up more 71 percent over last week's presentation of "Little Spirit: Christmas in New York," which managed a mere 1.4 in the same timeslot.
While NBC is not planning to re-air the special on TV this holiday season, the network has decided to make the entire special available to watch online (for free) through NBC.com and Hulu.com. So if you missed the special, or if you want to share it with someone else, or if you just want to watch it again (and again, and again), now you can view the whole uncut special online. NBC's online offering will only be available for a limited time (December 18 – 31), so be sure to catch it while you can.
I've also been told by sources within the Muppets Studio that a DVD release of the production is being looked at to coincide with the 2009 holiday season. I will keep you updated as more information on the future of the special and its release surfaces; but be sure to watch, rewatch and share the special while its available online (until the end of the year) and have a merry Christmas!
Links:
• Watch "A Muppets Christmas" on NBC Video Rewind
• Watch "A Muppets Christmas" on Hulu
13 comments:
How can I view this in Canada???
"Popular"? Not according to the New York Times:
***CBS won every hour of prime time in Wednesday’s ratings, according Nielsen’s estimates. Its drama “Criminal Minds” drew the night’s biggest audience, 15 million viewers, at 9 p.m., and “CSI: NY” led at 10 p.m. with 13.3 million. At 8 p.m. the CBS comedies “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and “Gary Unmarried” averaged 7.5 million viewers, just a bit more than NBC’s holiday special “A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa” (7.4 million). NBC finished a ***distant second*** on the night, garnering 5.2 million for “Life” at 9 and 6.9 million for “Law & Order” at 10. ABC and Fox finished in a virtual tie for third.**
No doubt this missive will be deleted, since it contains unpleasant facts for those who worship talking socks.
TV Guide has similar news yet states that the special "won the front half of the hour, earning 7.8 million total viewers"
"8 pm/ET
NBC's Muppets Christmas special won the front half of the hour, earning 7.8 million total viewers to Old Christine's 7.47 mil (a 10 percent decrease from last week's season high). At 8:30, Gary Unmarried (7.55 mil, down 480K), rose to the top. By the way, Max Gail? He's killing me. Go, Wojo!
Placing third, Fox's Secret Millionaire (6.65 mil) toppled 540K week-to-week. Pushing Daisies' perhaps-penultimate broadcast episode drew 4.82 mil, dipping 140K.
9 pm
Criminal Minds (15 mil, including J.J.'s cute wittle bitty baby-waby) enjoyed the night's only increase, adding 300K to last week's audience. In a distant second, Private Practice (6.65 mil) dropped 200K. Life (5.19 mil) slipped 280K.
10 pm
CSI: NY matched last week's audience of 13.26 mil, while Law & Order dipped 500K to fall shy of seven mil. Dirty Sexy Money held steady at 5.18 mil."
Source:
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Ratings-Criminal-Minds-1001059.aspx
So TV Guide's outlook is slightly better then the NYT is reporting.
I gotta know though, who are these people that switch over in the middle of a special to watch a show that will be surely rerun another time?
>>I gotta know though, who are these people that switch over in the middle of a special to watch a show that will be surely rerun another time?<<
It's not that people tuned out of The Muppets at 8:30. The ratings for the second half hour were about the same as the first. It's just that more new viewers turned on their TV at 8:30 and decided to watch CBS rather than jump in halfway through the Muppets' show. So CBS was able to pick up new people at 8:30 and pass NBC.
Fact: The Muppets won their timeslot across the board for the first half-hour with a 4.1 share.
Fact: The Muppets won the demographic of adults (ages 18-49) for both half-hours with a 2.4 share.
Fact: The Muppets were NBC's highest rated program of the night.
Fact: The Muppets were NBC's highest rated Christmas program.
Fact: The Muppets brought NBC's ratings up more 71% over what the same timeslot gained last week with the presentation of "Little Spirit: Christmas in New York".
Such a show of bravery from this anonymous person that came over to this site just to insult its fans with uninspired slights and misleading information. A Muppet has more spine than this mean-spirited fellow.
The special performed as I expected. It received an impressive viewership that demonstrated a healthy show of numbers for Muppets that will insure more things of fur and felt and heart in the future. I could not be more pleased.
Here is a more accurate source of the Neilson breakdown for the Muppets' hour of television:
NBC led at 8 p.m. with a 2.4 for “Muppet’s,” with Fox second with a 2.2 for “Millionaire.” CBS was third with a 2.1 average for “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (2.0) and “Gary Unmarried” (2.3), Univision fourth with a 1.7 for “Cuidado con el Angel,” ABC fifth with a 1.6 for ‘Pushing Daisies” and CW sixth with a 0.9 for a repeat of the “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.”
Sourced here in this article titled "Puppet Glow:
NBC's 'Muppet's' is Tops" from medialifemagazine.com
As a reminder, all rating reports are subject to change over the next few days/weeks as Nielsen continues to collect more data on what people watched that night. These are just the rough overnight estimates - for example DVR playback data has not been calculated in at all (and 28% of Nielsen households have DVRs). Plus the old fashioned paper log books have not been tallied either. So there is wiggle room as to the exact final numbers - give it about 2 weeks to get exact figures. However it is clear, even this early, that the Muppets did well on Wednesday.
Wow, Anonymous #2. Did it make you feel all warm and fuzzy to visit a Muppet fan website just to insult people? That's called "being a troll".
**It's not that people tuned out of The Muppets at 8:30. The ratings for the second half hour were about the same as the first.**
Not true, actually. Info from Mediaweek.com is below. Check it out:
Fast national ratings for Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
ABC:
8:00pm Pushing Daisies
9:00pm Private Practice
10:01pm Dirty Sexy Money
CBS:
8:00pm The New Adventures of Old Christine
8:30pm Gary Unmarried
9:00pm Criminal Minds
10:00pm CSI: NY
NBC:
8:00pm Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (special)
9:00pm Life
10:00pm Law & Order
Fox:
8:00pm Secret Millionaire
9:00pm Bones (R)
The CW:
8:00pm Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (R, special)
9:00pm Stylista
TIME NET HH A18-49 Viewers A18-34
8:00 ABC 3.3/6 1.6/5 5,120,000
8:00 CBS 5.0/9 2.0/6 7,471,000
8:00 NBC 4.3/7 2.4/7 7,809,000
8:00 FOX 4.0/7 2.1/6 6,205,000
8:00 CW 1.6/3 0.8/3 2,354,000 0.8/3
8:30 ABC 2.8/5 1.5/4 4,511,000
8:30 CBS 5.0/8 2.3/7 7,546,000
8:30 NBC 3.9/6 2.3/7 7,069,000
8:30 FOX 4.6/7 2.3/7 7,085,000
8:30 CW 1.6/3 1.0/3 2,499,000 0.9/3
Quite a bit of tune-away in the Mup's second half hour. I looked up the numbers because frankly, I myself tuned away during the second half-hour, when it looked like Ms. Piggy wasn't coming back. Love that pig!
I was actually glad the pig stepped back a little for this project. It actually gave the opportunity for audiences to be introduced to other characters like the Muppet Show did rather than play up the frog-pig dynamic once again. It was just balancing things out. Let's face it, the pig's not going anywhere.
We got to see Scooter again, lots of frog-bear bits (I've missed those) and so many other Muppet characters and moments absent from recent productions.
It was nice seeing Scooter and the Electric Mayhem do a little more than they have recently.
Also loved hearing Robin and Rowlf sing at the end.
The makers definitely made an extra effort to recapture the dynamics that people love about the Muppets and, I think, it certainly paid off.
I wish they'd release this on DVD SOONER than the 2009 Holiday season.
Well, since about 90% of people out there aren't interested in watching a Christmas special in the spring or summer, there is no rush to get it out any sooner. Put it out this coming Christmas, and people will buy it. Put it out this coming Easter, and it will sit on shelves.
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