Every family has its own unique traditions when the holidays roll around, but watching a Christmas movie is one of the most universally-beloved elements of the most wonderful time of the year. From How The Grinch Stole Christmas to Home Alone to Die Hard to Lethal Weapon (yes, it's a Christmas movie), there's seemingly no shortage of holiday classics to help you get in a festive state of mind. However, one of the most enduring and iconic Christmas movies of the bunch is Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life, and it looks like the 71-year-old movie once again proved its iconography by drawing in a massive audience for NBC this year.
Now that the numbers have started to roll in, it's becoming increasingly clear that It's A Wonderful Life once again brought in a massive viewership over at NBC just in time for the holidays. The network aired the film on Christmas Eve (the most fitting time to play it), and the broadcast generated a total viewership of 4.7 million viewers. It's A Wonderful Life was already a relatively popular Christmas tradition for many households, but this number seems to show a 3% increase over the 2016 broadcast of the film.
Beyond the sheer strength of It's A Wonderful Life's numbers, it also looks like the film has become NBC's most-watched movie in over a year. This comes after last year's airing of Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, which brought in roughly 11.6 million viewers during its time slot when it aired on November 30, 2016.
It's not hard to understand why It's A Wonderful Life has developed such a sterling holiday reputation. In fact, it's arguably the go-to holiday movie for many families all around the world. The film centers on George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), a man who wishes that he had never been born on Christmas Eve, before considering taking his own life. From there, he finds himself visited by a guardian angel (Henry Travers) who shows him how the world would be different if he had never been around to influence the lives of those around him.
It's A Wonderful Life may have become a significant holiday boom for NBC, but there's still plenty of new content coming to the small screen over the course of the next few months. To keep yourself up-to-date on all of these properties, make sure to take a look at CinemaBlend's fall TV premiere guide, as well as our midseason premiere guide.
Aside from that, you can also listen to the most recent episode of The Cord Cutter Podcast to hear what we have to say about the latest and greatest streaming content from all of your favorite platforms!
