NBC Boss Talks How ‘Wiz Live’ Saved The Holiday Musical and Lead to ‘Hairspray’

NBC’s Sound of Music Live event was a huge success for the network in 2013. However, the following fall’s production of Peter Pan Live failed to take flight, leaving the future of live musical TV events hanging by a thread. Enter 2015’s production of The Wiz Live. The retelling of the Wizard of Oz, got NBC back on it golden road to success. Now, NBC boss Robert Greenblatt is opening up about how The Wiz lead them to diversify future productions, including this fall’s production of Hairspray.

Recently, NBC Entertaiment Chairman Robert Greenblatt Spoke to Adweek.com about how the Wiz helped save live musicals:

“The Wiz emboldened us to do another one. If we'd gone south [in the ratings], we would be questioning it because they are enormously expensive. Everyone thinks every media company just rolls around in their cash, but that [musical] is so expensive to do, and it generates a lot of advertising revenue, but it doesn't generate a lot of profit. So we can't just do these for the fun of them. “

The Wiz also lead the network to look for more diverse productions, as Greenblatt added:

“What The Wiz did tell us is, let's speak to the diverse audience, in as potent a way as we can. Peter Pan was very white. Sound of Music was very white. And I think Hairspray is one of the few shows where thematically, it's about inclusion and literally integrating that music show with black people. It's a very uplifting, positive message, and there aren't a lot of shows where that's inherent. So that rose to the top immediately.”

However, diversity doesn’t do much if you don’t have the cast to pull it off. The Wiz’s all star cast really raised the bar for Live musicals. Greenblatt went on to discuss the challenge of casting the show:

“Now, the challenge to cast it is a big one, because The Wiz did set that bar. I think these musicals do significantly better if you have big names. Not in every role, because it was so fun to discover [newcomer-turned-Wiz-star] Shanice Williams, but you've got to have some real marquee value, and that's what we're going to look for now.”

What do you think of NBC’s selection? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of the page.