A Christmas Story Live!: 'Worst Thing' Ever

The reviews and the numbers are in, and they all point to the same sad conclusion: A Christmas Story Live! was a flop. Based on the beloved 1983 movie about a young boy in 1950s middle America who dreams of getting an air rifle for Christmas, Fox's musical, starring Maya Rudolph and Matthew Broderick, brought in only 4.5 million viewers and got a meager 1.5 rating among adults 18-45, reports Vanity Fair. Those are just early numbers, but if they hold up, it would mean A Christmas Story Live! was the least-watched live TV musical since the genre was revived in 2013 with The Sound of Music Live!, which pulled in 22 million viewers.

No doubt the show's reviews are hitting producers just as hard. One TV critic called the show a "letdown," CNN reports. Another said it "shoots its own eye out," while a third said it missed the "light fun of the holiday classic." And social media was even harsher. On Twitter, the show was called a "dumpster fire," an "abomination," and the "worst thing that has ever been on TV," Entertainment Weekly reports. But it may have been Twitter user Ross who best summed up the response to this live musical revival of a classic: "They managed to ruin 'A Christmas Story.'" (More A Christmas Story stories.)