Tuesday, August 21, 2007

High School Musical 2 Breaks Records

With a record breaking Nielsen score last week at its premiere, High School Musical 2 showed that Disney has found the formula for a successful made-for-TV series.

Building upon the successful spin-offs, including concerts and records from the first show, it was not surprising that the sequel to High School Musical became the most-watched basic cable program ever.

With an estimated audience of 17.2 million viewers, the second installment of the series more than doubled the 7.7 million viewers that watched High School Musical. The previous record for a single basic cable event was an ESPN Monday Night Football game in 2006, which registered 16 million viewers.

Disney has struck gold with the High School Musical brand, as it has built up an extremely loyal fan base. By allowing the fans to interact with the stars of the show through concerts and records, Disney has been able to transform the normal viewer relationship with a character into a social phenomenon.

As the sequel continued the adventures of students Sharpay and Troy and their fellow Wildcats of East High through the summer break, we look forward to seeing what happens in the next installment of this exciting new series.

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens out on Monday (August 20), along with shots of HS Musical 2’s stars at the Disney Premiere last week.