"Rosie Live": Rosie misses but Macy's soars

Looks like viewers mostly agreed with the critics about Rosie O'Donnell's Thanksgiving eve variety show for NBC.

The hourlong 8 p.m. "Rosie Live" spesh, averaged 5 million viewers and a mere 1.2 rating/4 share in the adults 18-49 aud, per Nielsen prelims. It lost about 400,000 viewers at the half-hour mark. It's not surprising that the viewer turnout would be light around a major holiday, but grabbing only a 4 share of the 18-49 aud that was out there is very surprising, and probably telling about the state of NBC's low overall circulation these days.

I'm guessing there wasn't much of an awareness factor among folks who might be inclined to check out an old-fashioned celebs-and-songs holiday spesh. Critics weren't impressed -- certainly not Variety's Brian Lowry -- but I still say O'Donnell deserves credit for trying to revive a once-proud TV tradition. Maybe she should've worn a cardigan sweater and smoked a pipe.

Friday update: NBC had something to be thankful for on Thursday morning. The 82nd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was a hot ticket, with its overnight numbers up 8% from last year to 12.6 rating/26 share in Nielsen's metered markets. Peacock's number-crunchers estimate that more than 44 million people watched some portion of the 9 a.m.-noon telecast. Any parade with a giant Kermit the Frog in it is A-OK by me.