Good Night, And Good Luck: Live Broadcast Of Broadway Play Delivers CNN's 2nd-Biggest Night Of 2025
'Twas a good night, indeed.
CNN's live broadcast of the George Clooney-led Broadway play Good Night, and Good Luck on Saturday night reached 7.34 million global viewers, including streaming audiences on Max and CNN.com.
The Stateside share of that audience tallied 5.64 million people, with an additional 1.7 million tuning in internationally.
On CNN alone, Good Night, and Good Luck drew north of 2 million total viewers, fueling a No. 1 ranking across all of cable for the day, and leading the newser to its second-highest Prime (7 pm-11 pm) delivery of the year in total viewers — trailing only President Trump's address to Congress on March 4.
TVLine readers gave the telecast an average grade of "A."
Good Night, and Good Luck gave CNN its third-biggest event of 2025 on the Max platform, while
CNN.com viewing peaked at 8:33 pm (during the closing monologue of the performance, suggesting sustained tune-in).
Of note, 155,000 total people attended Good Night, and Good Luck performances throughout its nine-week Broadway run.
Based on the 2005 film of the same name, Good Night, and Good Luck — which wrapped its Broadway run on Sunday — starred ER alum Clooney as legendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow. The true story takes place in the 1950s, as Murrow came under fire for criticizing Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who levied unsubstantiated charges of communism at various Americans during the Cold War.
The 100-minute production ran without intermission, as it has since it opened at New York's Winter Garden Theatre on April 3.
Clooney directed the 2005 film, in which he played Murrow's producer, Fred Friendly. In the Broadway show, Friendly is played by Glenn Fleshler (True Detective). Clooney and Grant Heslov wrote both the movie and the play.
The play's cast also includes Clark Gregg (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Carter Hudson, Paul Gross, Christopher Denham, Fran Kraz, Mac Brandt, Will Dagger and Georgia Heers. The production is nominated for five Tony Awards, including Clooney for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.
Note: Though the CNN-provided photos below are black-and-white, the broadcast was in color.