Camp Rocks HSM, But Not HSM2

Jonas Brothers, Camp Rock Disney Channel/John Medland

The question was: Could three Jonases take down one Zac Efron? The answer was yes—and no.

Friday night's premiere of the Jonas Brothers-populated TV musical Camp Rock averaged 8.9 million viewers, the Disney Channel said today.

That's bigger than the original, Efron-led High School Musical, which debuted before 7.7 million viewers. But it's smaller—significantly smaller—than the 17.2 million who turned out for last August's return of Efron in High School Musical 2.

HSM2 stands as the most watched non-sports program ever on cable.

The Camp Rock premiere came at the start of what has been referenced as the summer of the Jonas Brothers. But even the seemingly all-powerful tween dream of a band couldn't find a way around an elemental law of the box office: Sequels, like HSM2, are tough to beat.

Judging Camp Rock's performance against the original High School Musical, meanwhile, is an inexact science. The Jonas Brothers are far bigger stars than Efron or any of his costars were in January 2006, when the first HSM premiered.

The true test of Camp Rock may come in its ability, or not, to play and play and play again, à la the HSM movies, which dominated cable ratings even as relatively aged reruns.

Camp Rock's shelf life gets its first test tonight, when it re-airs on ABC. On Sunday, it comes to ABC Family, and then on a computer near you, starting Monday, via Disney.com.

Read More

93 Comments

Now loading...

Add Your Comment!

Guests

E! Online members

Register | Forgot password?

Play nice and have fun. And please, no HTML tags or special characters including [&*#()!@$].
You've got 1000 characters left.

Post Comment

BIG PICTURE

Ho-Ho-Hottie Lindsay revisits her Mean Girls glory days with a little "Jingle Bell Rock" at the MySpace holiday party

More Photos

E! News Now

  • Keri Russell Bares All

    The former "Felicity" star is all grown up and showing off her skivvies! See her revealing photo shoot!

  • Alicia Keys' Inaugural Rumor

    Tyra Banks turns detective when the soulful singer visits her show. Find out if Keys will be rocking The White House.

  • Exclusive: Spencer Defends Marriage

    Spencer shares some harsh words with Ryan Seacrest about his mother-in-law's not-so-loving allegations. Hear it.

  • Jessica Biel Gives Back

    The actress gets in the holiday spirit by giving back in a big way. Plus, how you can score a date with her man Justin!

Our Partners

Shop

Get Your E! News Now

Text ENEWS to 4INFO (44636) for daily celeb news alerts

Standard messaging rates apply.

Did you know you can grab smokin' hot E! Online news, review and gossip through our RSS service?

New to RSS feeds? Learn more >>

Birthdate:

Enter your full birthdate:

has been subscribed to the E! News Now Newsletter.

To change your settings, go to your preferences.

E! News Now

  • Keri Russell Bares All

    The former "Felicity" star is all grown up and showing off her skivvies! See her revealing photo shoot!

  • Alicia Keys' Inaugural Rumor

    Tyra Banks turns detective when the soulful singer visits her show. Find out if Keys will be rocking The White House.

  • Exclusive: Spencer Defends Marriage

    Spencer shares some harsh words with Ryan Seacrest about his mother-in-law's not-so-loving allegations. Hear it.

  • Jessica Biel Gives Back

    The actress gets in the holiday spirit by giving back in a big way. Plus, how you can score a date with her man Justin!