Rent: Fox scores lowest rating ever for a live broadcast musical

Rent has fallen behind previous musical broadcasts

Fox's Rent special on Sunday night failed to draw as many viewers as other live broadcast musicals – scoring the lowest ever rating in that category.

The broadcast pulled in 3.4m viewers on Sunday night, Variety reported citing overnight ratings.

Rent scored a 1.4 rating for adults aged 18 to 49 according to the website.

By comparison, Fox's live staging of Grease was watched by 12.2m people in 2016, with a 4.3 rating, Variety reported at the time.

Last year, A Christmas Story scored 4.5m viewers and a 1.5 rating for Fox, which by then was the lowest rating ever for a live broadcast musical. Rent has now brought in lower numbers.

While Rent didn't perform as well as previous musicals, it still beat out broadcast competition during each of its three hours of run time, Variety noted.

Fox had to unexpectedly air a previously recorded version of the dress rehearsal for most of the broadcast after star Brennin Hunt, who plays the central part of Roger, injured his right foot on the eve of the broadcast.