NBC to Encore The Sound of Music Live! Starring Carrie Underwood This Saturday, December 14

Attracting 21.3 million total viewers (live + three-day time-shifted viewing), The Sound of Music Live! drew widespread praise, including Newsday, which lauded it as “officially one of network TV’s glowing triumphs of the year,” while TV Guide declared, “Carrie Underwood looked the part, and sang with clarity and purpose,” and Entertainment Weekly proclaimed, “NBC’s big winter gamble paid off.”

The Sound of Music Live! ranked #1 primetime in all 56 Nielsen-metered markets, with more than 18.5 million total viewers for the live broadcast. This is all the more remarkable in the context of a traditional Broadway musical, which in an average 1800-seat theatre, with the standard eight shows a week, would require a run amounting to 25 years to reach an audience of that size, as producer Ken Davenport describes in his blog.

Also starring TV and theater star Stephen Moyer and Tony Award winners Audra McDonald, Christian Borle and Laura Benanti, The Sound of Music Live! will be released on DVD on December 17.

“The Sound of Music” — Music from the NBC Television Event is available now from Sony Masterworks, featuring studio recordings for all of the musical numbers performed by the cast in the live broadcast, including such Rodgers & Hammerstein favorites as “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” and the classic title track.

Since releasing her debut album in 2005, Carrie has sold over 15 million albums and charted 18 #1 singles, nine of which she co-wrote. Her current album, Blown Away, made history by debuting at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums Chart, making Carrie only the second country artist in the 47-year history of the chart to have each of their first four albums debut at #1. The now Platinum-selling Blown Away album also debuted at #1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, making Carrie only the second country artist in history to have three consecutive albums debut at #1. She is a six-time GRAMMY® winner, a two-time Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year, a three-time Country Music Association and ACM Female Vocalist winner, and a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Follow Carrie on Twitter @carrieunderwood.