Fast nationals from Nielsen show that in the 8 PM hour, ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," a repeat of CBS's "Cold Case" and FOX's NFL postgame coverage and "The Simpsons" outranked the NBC premiere. At 9 PM, the new show bumped up to third place behind ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and a new episode of "Cold Case" on CBS.
Zap2it called the numbers for the debut "reasonably solid," while Variety puts them at "good but not great."
Americans watched as young (and some not-so-young) hopefuls belted out their best Grease show tunes for the diplomatic director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall, co-creator Jim Jacobs and British producer David Ian (a reality television staple).
Visit Playbill.com's recap of the show at Is "Grease" the Word?: Week 1 Recap.
"Access Hollywood" co-anchor Billy Bush and U.K. television and theatre star Denise Van Outen hosted the show, which gave TV viewers a taste of the talent pool of Los Angeles and Chicago. (Next week, the show is bound for New York.) Olivia Newton-John, who played Sandy opposite John Travolta's Danny in the "Grease" film, guest starred on the first episode of the show, which debuted Jan. 7 at 8 PM (ET). She will return in episode two as well.
Bravo will rerun the program Tuesdays at 6:30 PM, Wednesdays at 12 AM, Thursdays at 11 PM and Friday at 5:30 PM. Check your local listings.
The new Broadway production will feature the Jacobs-Warren Casey songs made famous by the original musical, including "Summer Nights," "Greased Lightning" and "We Go Together" as well as the four additional film songs "Grease is the Word," "You're the One That I Want," "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Sandy" interpolated into the score.
Paul Nicholas and David Ian Associates, Nederlander Presentations and Phoenix Productions will produce the Broadway run of the show, which begins rehearsals on or about April 1. The capitalization is $10 million.
Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster outlets. Group sales for Grease are available by calling Nederlander Group Sales at (212) 840-3890.
The NBC official website for the show can be found at nbc.com/Grease.
