The waning popularity of the Christmas pop music special
It's late December, which means the season for televised holiday specials is drawing to a close. This year, amid annual staples such as "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life," one type of programming seemed to be in scarcer supply: the "star-studded" concert special.
During previous Christmas seasons, pop and country singers such as Michael Buble, Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton have hosted their own tinsel-filled holiday singalongs for network TV. Typically, these specials are one-offs; they don't re-air during subsequent holiday seasons, none quite capable of achieving the classic status enjoyed by animated holiday fare and black-and-white family films. But this season's relative dearth of Christmas specials fronted by chart-topping singers has me wondering if they're becoming altogether obsolete.
That would be a shame. In the absence of door-to-door caroling, televised holiday specials were one of the only opportunities I had to feel serenaded growing up. It's one thing to hum or sing your favorite carols alone or as part of a family chorus. But there's a particular warmth and awe attendant to having a song such as "O Holy Night," sung to you; its lyrics then become a gentle chiding: "Fall on your knees/Oh, hear the angel voices." I can hear the directive in the carol better when some other voice delivers it.
I've always loved Christmas song specials for their ability to indiscriminately visit good cheer upon homes, no matter whether or not carolers would feel safe or welcome venturing into their neighborhoods. In years when mirth has been harder to come by than others, they've remained a constant, if predictable, marker of the season - that is, until recently.
Network TV isn't entirely devoid of mirthful singing in the last quarter of the year. On Dec. 3, NBC staged its third annual live musical performance, "The Wiz Live!," and its first airing was so well-received (to the tune of 11.5 million viewers) that it aired again two weeks later. The network also snagged the coveted broadcast rights to Adele's first concert in years, "Adele Live in New York," which aired Dec. 14. But neither of those was explicitly Christmas-themed.
Aside from ABC's "A Country Christmas," an ensemble revue, there have been no red-and-green-splashed stage sets, no grand pianos plinked dutifully beside a firelit hearth as someone in a tux or evening gown belted a Bing Crosby standard, and no walk-on guest appearances for duets of "Baby, It's Cold Outside."
It could be a ratings thing. With the exception of Michael Buble, who really committed to the televised Christmas special format to the tune of four specials in the United States and/or Canada between 2011 and 2014, holiday musical revues don't pull in huge viewerships. Buble's first special in 2011 had more than 7 million viewers; audiences in subsequent years hovered at around 5 million. "Kelly Clarkson's Cautionary Christmas," which had a Scrooge-inspired narrative thread to accompany its singing numbers, earned 3.5 million viewers in 2013. That's significantly lower than NBC's December offerings this year.
The potential trend away from more traditional holiday musical revue specials could be because the format is simply too staid for this live-tweeting generation. Live theater adaptations have the novelty of spontaneity; we tune in as much to see who might flub his or her lines as to have our hearts warmed by the holiday hearth. And Adele is so wildly popular right now, particularly among the coveted 18-to-25 demographic, that her special promised stratospheric live viewership, regardless of its theme.
Networks seem to pivoting, but won't we miss the holiday musical revue if it disappears entirely? It's a tradition that dates to the earliest days of television, when Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Perry Como first initiated the Christmas-themed song, dance and comedy special in the 1950s. I, for one, wouldn't want to lose it altogether.
But song-and-dance Christmas specials could use some livening up.
Instead of a popular-singer-and-friends setup, perhaps other popular network series casts could perform in live holiday music and sketch specials. Fox attempted it this year with "Taraji and Terrence's White Hot Holidays," having its "Empire" stars host a music special in the show's regular time slot. Though ratings were tepid at 1.5 million, it was an interesting foray into reinventing the subgenre. And it served as a timely reminder that Hollywood is full of actors who double as talented musical performers.
Imagine Bryan Cranston hosting a holiday special or the cast of "Orange Is the New Black," which boasts two performers who have recently appeared in musical theater: Uzo Aduba in "The Wiz Live!" and Danielle Brooks in "The Color Purple" on Broadway. Taking some of TV's most charismatic on-screen presences and transporting them to winter wonderlands isn't too shabby an idea.
It certainly couldn't hurt, if we're looking to keep the time-honored Christmas special close to our hearts.