'Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors' Breaks 3-Year Record for Network Television

Photo: Jeff Lipsky/NBC

Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors broke a three-year record as the highest-rated movie (made for TV or theatrical) or miniseries on the broadcast networks, according to Zap2It.com‘s Nielsen analysis and Variety.

Live/same-day fast affiliate ratings ratings for the broadcast, which featured Jennifer Nettles as Parton’s mother, totaled 12.84 million viewers and a 18-49 rating of (1.8/6).

According to Variety, CBS’ 2012 Jesse Stone: Benefit of Doubt held the all-network record for most viewers (12.93 million). Live +7 day ratings may bring the additional 90,000 viewers “Coat” would need to surpass the Tom Selleck program. Variety also reports this is NBC’s largest overall audience in that time period (excluding sports) since its telecast of Carrie Underwood‘s The Sound of Music Live in December 2013. This is NBC’s largest Thursday 9-11 p.m. audience (excluding all live programming) since the series finale of ER in April 2009.