'Grease: Live' by the numbers

After months of preparation and hype, Grease: Live premiered to positive reviews — read our recap here — and impressive numbers. But just how many people tuned in? What was the most popular song? And how many tweets were there about Boyz II Men? 

Read on below for some of the by-the-numbers highlights:

Soundtrack

The Grease: Live soundtrack jumped to No. 1 on the iTunes soundtrack chart, overtaking Hamilton for the top spot.

All 16 individual tracks charted on the iTunes sountrack songs chart.

“Those Magic Changes,” performed by Jordan Fisher, is No. 1 on the soundtrack songs chart and in the top 100 overall songs chart.

Ratings

Grease: Live scored a 4.3 rating among adults 18-49.

12.2 million viewers tuned in, making it the most-watched live musical event since NBC aired The Sound of Music Live! in 2013. Grease: Live scored more viewers than The Wiz Live! (11.5 million) and Peter Pan Live! (9.2 million).

Twitter

358,500 people sent 1.2 million tweets about Grease: Live during the broadcast.

Boyz II Men’s performance of “Beauty School Dropout” resulted in the most-tweeted minute at 8:31 p.m. ET with 9,350 tweets.

#GreaseLive trended on Twitter for 13 hours. 

Production

Grease: Live featured 24 cast members, 20 dancers, and 60 extras who rehearsed for 52 days leading up to the show.

The live event included a 650-member audience.

Over 200 staff and crew were on set for the show, along with 20 cameras.

The production was filmed on 21 sets across two soundstages and the entire back lot of the Warner Brothers studio.  

• By Danielle Zhu