CNN’s decision to air the penultimate Broadway performance of Good Night, and Good Luck on Saturday 7 June has paid off.
The network reached a combined 7.34 million viewers across CNN US, CNN International, Max and CNN.com for the live broadcast, making it one of the channel’s biggest nights of 2025.
Nielsen-sourced overnight figures put the US linear audience at 2.011 million, with 223,000 adults aged 25-34 – enough to top all cable channels in total viewers and get third place behind ESPN’s baseball and ESPN2’s college softball coverage in that demographic.
It was also the second-highest CNN primetime of 2025.
The numbers are big when set against the show’s in-person run: around 155,000 people saw the play during this year’s limited Broadway engagement.
First announced last month, televising Good Night, and Good Luck broke a number of barriers: it was the first time a Broadway play had been carried live on basic cable, the first to stream free on a major SVOD platform without a paywall, and only the second time in five years any US network had risked real-time drama after NBC’s live musicals franchise.
CNN treated the night like a big sporting event, bookending the 90-minute drama with analysis panels that drew explicit lines between Edward R. Murrow’s 1954 on-air takedown of Senator McCarthy and present-day battles over press freedom. In a pre-recorded statement, Clooney called the experiment “something that’s never been done… Live TV. No net. Buckle up, everyone.”
What this means for London
Long-standing whispers of a West End transfer for Good Night, and Good Luck got a fresh jolt days before the broadcast when George Clooney told Late Night with Seth Meyers: “There’s going to be a roadshow for it, and I think it might end up in London.”
There are also rumours that producers are exploring options for a late-2025 or early-2026 London slot, although no venue or timetable is confirmed.
George Clooney’s box-office clout on Broadway already pushed the play to be the first ‘$4 million week’ show ever achieved by a non-musical on Broadway.
More about Good Night, and Good Luck
Good Night, and Good Luck is adapted from the 2005 film co-written and directed by George Clooney, and dramatises TV journalist Edward R. Murrow’s historic clash with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the ‘Red Scare’.
Clooney co-wrote the play with Grant Heslov, with the two serving as lead producers, and the show was directed by Tony Award-winner David Cromer.
George Clooney was nominated for a 2025 Tony Award for his role in Good Night, And Good Luck, with the show nominated for five awards overall. In the end, Sunday’s Tony Awards failed to deliver on the gongs, with Clooney losing out to Cole Escola (Oh, Mary!) for the best actor award.
The Broadway cast of Good Night, and Good Luck also included Mac Brandt as Colonel Anderson, Will Dagger as Don Hewitt, Christopher Denham as John Aaron, Glenn Fleshler as Fred Friendly, Ilana Glazer as Shirley Wershba, Clark Gregg as Don Hollenbeck, Paul Gross as William S. Paley, Georgia Heers as Ella, Carter Hudson as Joe Wershba, Fran Kranz as Palmer Williams, Jennifer Morris as Millie Green, Michael Nathanson as Eddie Scott, Andrew Polk as Charlie Mack, Aaron Roman Weiner as Don Surine, and the ensemble featuring R. Ward Duffy, Joe Forbrich, Imani Rousselle, Greg Stuhr, JD Taylor, and Sophia Tzougros.
The creative team for Good Night, and Good Luck also included Scott Pask (scenic design), Heather Gilbert (lighting design), David Bengali (video/projections design), Daniel Kluger (sound design), Brenda Abbandandolo (costume design), Leah J. Loukas (hair & wig design), Gigi Buffington (voice & dialect), Daniel Kluger and Bryan Carter (music supervision), and David Caparelliotis (casting director).
Good Night, and Good Luck was produced on Broadway by Seaview, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, Jean Doumanian and Robert Fox.
There is no current news on London dates for Good Night, and Good Luck, but check back for details or sign-up below for alerts.
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