Cute Teens + Catchy Songs = Another Hit Disney TV Movie

“Camp Rock,” Disney’s latest made-for-television musical, drew as many viewers as last year’s “High School Musical 2,” but only if you add up the audience numbers from three broadcasts and an evening of Internet viewing.

The movie, starring the Jonas Brothers, was not expected to defeat last year’s “Musical,” but it still performed well for Disney, attracting an average of 8.9 million viewers on the Disney Channel Friday, 3.6 million on ABC Saturday, and 3.7 million on ABC Family Sunday. (That’s right ­ the two cable premieres topped the broadcast premiere ­ though, to be fair Saturday is the lowest-rated night of the week.)

Disney.com’s broadband channel recorded 950,000 visitors on Monday, the evening that “Camp Rock” debuted online. It all adds up to roughly 17.2 million viewers, the same number that “Musical” earned in August, although some of the “Camp Rock” fans probably watched it more than once.

In a news release Tuesday, ABC reported the total “reach” of “Camp Rock” ­ i.e., the total number of people who watched for six minutes, but may not have watched the whole movie ­ to be 21 million viewers.

The movie reached almost 5.8 million children between the ages of 6 and 11. Among 9- to 14-year-olds, it reached 6 million viewers. (Those figures include Canada, where 1.4 million viewers were exposed to the movie.)

As if on cue, The Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday that a follow-up to “Camp Rock” was in the works. “The network hopes to go into production on a sequel in late spring or summer 2009,” the trade publication reported.