The Casting Couch

The Casting Couch

Monday, August 20, 2007

HSM2 Mania!


Disney Channel's "High School Musical 2" broke all kinds of records over the weekend with the highest cable premiere of ALL TIME. It just goes to show you that the tween audience is a force that cannot be denied.

A whopping 17.2 million people tuned in to see what Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and the rest of the gang had to offer. Simply amazing. It was the most watched Friday night telecast in more than 5 years, not to mention the most watched basic cable movie ever, pulling in almost 38% MORE viewers that the previous record holder.

It hit Disney Channel's key demographic perfectly, proving itself to be an incredible marketing machine (most watched TV telecast ever in kids 6-11, and 2nd most watched in tweens 9-14). Now I've been expecting this, having seen firsthand the crazy popularity "High School Musical" garnered. I mean the soundtrack alone last year was the NUMBER ONE SELLING ALBUM OF THE YEAR. This auspicious debut really should come as no surprise to anyone. I'm awaiting the numbers on the encore premieres on Saturday and Sunday night, assuming that it too was capable of breaking all kinds of records.

Congratulations, my friends!! You deserve it!!!

**UPDATE**
I was right, the rebroadcasts of "High School Musical 2" (A Sing-A-Long) on Saturday and Sunday averaged a whopping 8.44 and 7.54 million viewers respectively, making Saturday's broadcast the 4th most watched telecast ever and Sunday's the 9th. That's a grand total of 33.22 million viewers in ONE WEEKEND for the made-for-TV movie. Think about that...if this had been a theatrical release with ticket sales averaging around $8, it could have grossed over $265 MILLION. That's significantly bigger than the opening for Spiderman 3, which had the highest opening to date with $151 million. Craziness. Needless to say, this movie bumped cable channel Disney Channel into the No.3 network spot for the week, averaging more viewers than basic cable networks NBC, ABC, or the CW.

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