Ratings: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Special Transports ABC to Demo Win

ABC’s “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration” — which stars the Grammy and Oscar-winning musician H.E.R. as Belle — has transported the network to a broadcast ratings win on Thursday night, per live plus same-day Nielsen figures.

The anniversary special captivated with 0.79 in the 18-49 demographic, averaging 4.3 million total viewers overall. Airing on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET with next-day viewing on Disney+ and Hulu, the show led the network to 0.66 in the demo and an average viewership of 3.5 million.

Presented by the anthology series The Wonderful World of Disney, the two-hour reimagining also starred Martin Short (“Lumière”), Josh Groban (“Beast”), Joshua Henry (“Gaston”), David Alan Grier (“Cogsworth”), Shania Twain (“Mrs. Potts”), Rizwan Manji (“LeFou”), Jon Jon Briones (Belle’s father “Maurice”) and Leo Abelo Perry (Mrs. Potts’ son “Chip”), along with narrator Rita Moreno. Jon M. Chu executive produced the hybrid animated/live-action special and Hamish Hamilton served as director, taking viewers on a memorable journey through the classic enchanted tale.

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Here’s how the rest of the night stacked up in broadcast ratings:

After ABC, CBS was second in ratings, averaging 0.41 in the demo and 5 million total watchers (the highest of the night), propelled by the network’s two-parter Christmas-themed “Ghosts” episodes; the sophomore comedy saw a surprising hookup in its last installment ahead of the winter broadcast break, and garnered 7 million average viewers, along with 0.59 in the demo.

NBC was third in ratings and viewership, with 0.25 in the demo and nearly 2 million average watchers for the night. The network aired a rerun of its “Baking It!” special at 8 p.m. and a rerun of the 2016 “Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love” an hour later.

Fox and The CW took fourth and fifth places for the night, in both ratings and viewership. The former netted 0.12 in the demo and 521,000 watchers with reruns of programming like “Welcome to Flatch.” The latter network aired holiday special “Christmas Around USA,” with Dean Cain and Laura McKenzie, receiving 0.04 in ratings and averaging 516,000 watchers for the evening.

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