Ratings for Nickelodeon musical not so ‘Spectacular!’

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In the end, Nickelodeon’s ‘Spectacular!’ couldn’t out-sing Disney Channel’s ‘High School Musical.’

The two-hour rock musical, which aired Monday at 8 p.m. with limited commercial interruption, drew 3.3 million total viewers and posted a 6.0 rating among Nick’s target kids, ages 6 to 11.

That’s a far cry from the turnout for the first installment of ‘HSM,’ which drew 7.7 million viewers in January 2006. (‘HSM 2’ delivered a record-setting 17.3 million in August 2007).

‘Spectacular!’ about a huffy aspiring rock star who gets pulled into his school’s show choir, faced stiff competition from Disney Channel’s ‘Dadnapped,’ an original movie starring several of the network’s stars, which was watched by 4.6 million viewers.

A Disney press release harped on what it called Nickelodeon’s ‘original movie knock-off,’ crowing that ‘Dadnapped’ outdelivered ‘Spectacular!’ by 39% in total viewers, 62% among viewers 6-11 (2.1 million versus 1.3 million) and 38% among tweens (1.8 million versus 1.3 million).

On the positive tip, ‘Spectacular!’ nearly doubled Nickelodeon’s average in the time period among tweens and boosted it by 59% among kids 6-11. And in altogether better news for Nickelodeon, a new 7:30 p.m. episode of ‘iCarly’ won the night among kids, posting a strong 9.97 rating among viewers 6-11 and a 9.56 among tweens (ages 9 to 14). ‘iCarly’ drew 5 million viewers overall.

— Denise Martin

Related:
The Los Angeles Times review of ‘Spectacular’