The "live plus seven day" estimates, which include same-night viewing and DVR playback for seven days, made The Sound of Music Live! the most-viewed primetime show for the week of Dec. 2-8. It nabbed an average of 21.84 million viewers in its first week.

A total of 38.696 million viewers watched a portion of the initial live Dec. 5 broadcast. The 44.1 million figure includes the Dec. 5 premiere, as well as the "live plus three day" results for the Dec. 14 encore.

The Sound of Music Live! delivered the most-watched program for NBC, not including sports, since the finale of "Frasier" in 2004.

As previously reported, the huge ratings for The Sound of Music Live! prompted NBC to commit to presenting another live musical during the 2014 holiday season. Playbill.com recently shared our picks for musicals we'd like to see on NBC next year.

Read: Von Trapp Family Reacts to The Sound of Music Live! Executive-produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, The Sound of Music Live! was co-directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller and Rob Ashford. The telecast of the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical is based on the original 1959 Broadway production of The Sound of Music, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel, with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

Read: Neil Meron and Craig Zadan Gamble on a New American Tradition with The Sound of Music Live!

Six-time Grammy winner Carrie Underwood stars as Maria and “True Blood” star Moyer as Capt. Georg von Trapp with Tony Award winners Audra McDonald (Ragtime, Master Class) as Mother Abbess, Laura Benanti (Gypsy, Women on the Verge) as Elsa Schrader and Christian Borle (Peter and the Starcatcher, "Smash") as Max Dettweiler.

The principal cast and members of the creative team recently shared their "Favorite Things" about The Sound of Music with Playbill.com.

The cast also features Tony nominee Christiane Noll as Sister Margaretta, Jessica Molaskey as Sister Berthe and Elena Shaddow as Sister Sophia. Tony nominee Kristine Nielsen plays Frau Schmidt, with Sean Cullen as Franz, Michael Campayno as Rolf, CJ Wilson as Herr Zeller, Catherine Brunell as Frau Zeller, Michael Park as Baron Elberfeld, Chase as Baroness Elberfeld, Brown as Ursula and John Bolger as Admiral Von Schrieber.

View Playbill.com's PHOTO CALL with exclusive images from the cast in rehearsal.

Cast as nuns are Georgia Stitt, Ashley Brown, Paula Leggett Chase, Linda Mugleston, Margot de La Barre, Laura Shoop, Sydney Morton, Wendi Bergamini, Cameron Adams, Rema Webb, Rayanne Gonzales, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Adrienne Danrich, Autumn Hurlbert, Catherine Brunell, Leah Horowitz, Gina Ferrall, Nikki Renee Daniels, Joy Hermalyn and Stowe Brown.

Playing the von Trapp children are Ariane Rinehart (Liesl), Michael Nigro (Fredrich), Ella Watts-Gorman (Louisa), Joe West (Kurt), Sophia Caruso (Brigitta), Grace Rundhaug (Marta) and Peyton Ella as young Gretl.

Also featured are Jake Boyd, Shannon Lewis, Samantha Zack, Megan Sikora, Matt Wall, Ward Billisen, Marty Lawson, Alex Michael Stoll, Bob Gaynor, Karl Warden, Brandon Henschal, David Hull, Charlie Williams and Jennie Ford.

The creative team includes production designer Derek McLane, art director Kevin Rupnik and assistant art director Aimee Dombo.

The Sound of Music Live! was produced by Universal Television.

close gallery

0 of

The Sound of Music Live!, Starring Carrie Underwood and Audra McDonald, Hits the Airwaves; Highlights from the Broadcast

Next Slide  

You may also like

• 
  Look Back at the Original Production of Ragtime
• 
  From Ragtime to Shuffle Along: Celebrating Brian Stokes Mitchell's Greatest Stage Roles
• 
  Look Back at Spamalot on Broadway