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Disney’s Ross: ‘High School Musical 2’ Success Proves Strength of TV Movie Biz

High School Musical 2’s debut on Disney drew 17.2 million viewers on Friday night, according to preliminary ratings estimates from the channel. If accurate, those numbers would make it the most-watched television program of the week for both cable and network - and the most-watched show of any kind in basic cable history, writes The New York Times.

The first High School Musical was a made-for-TV movie that premiered in January 2006 to an audience of 7.8 million. It generated $100 million in profits from DVD and soundtrack sales, as well as numerous other brand extensions.

The response to the show may be a further indication that Disney is being successful with its efforts to reposition the channel to appeal to the underserved tween age-group (ages 9-14).

High School Musical was Disney’s 61st original film, and Rich Ross, the president of Disney Channel Worldwide, says that the ratings achievements of the sequel point to the larger strength of the channel’s television movie business.

When Ross originally sought to create a line of made-for-TV movies for the Disney Channel, in 1996, the idea almost didn’t fly. Disney was, at the time, trying to shift from being a premium service while attempting to compete against rival Nickelodeon. At the same time, the 9- to 14-year-old demographic was craving pop-culture of their own, separate from that of their older-teen peers.

Now, the Disney Channel has, for the past two years, been the highest-rated basic cable channel among children 6-11 and 9-14. That is a big switch from 2000-2001 when Nickelodeon had all of the Top 10 most-watched shows on basic cable among children 6-14.