Entertainment, TV, Celebrity, Culture

Dwayne Johnson Says ‘Young Rock’ Most Watched NBC Comedy “In Years”

by in Culture | November 5, 2022

Dwayne_Johnson by Eva Rinaldi [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Dwayne Johnson, photo: Eva Rinaldi [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Dwayne Johnson talks like some of your friends talk, even if he doesn’t quite look like your friends do. That’s The Rock’s “accessible celebrity” secret: regular guy demeanor, superman physique. Fans take a lot of pleasure reconciling the two images.

Then there is The Rock‘s third important ingredient when it comes to great fan relationships: He wears his success and fame the way we all hope we would, lightly but with style and a sense of responsibility. The Rock inspires.

And that success just keeps coming — Johnson says above that Young Rock, an inventive and fun journey through his early days and ascent to stardom, is “the most watched comedy on NBC in years.”

Fans won’t forget that NBC was the “must see TV” home of comedy for decades, with Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, and more all beacons of the sitcom genre. There is a smaller audience share to be had now, of course, for a network sitcom — the streaming options having changed viewing habits irreversibly.

But there are still first place finishers, and Young Rock has been a success with digital viewers too.

So The Rock celebrates being in elite company in NBC’s rich comedy history — and still manages his total regular guy style.

Johnson has a different life, no doubt, than his viewers, and yet when he says it’s been a “tough week” and celebrates “finishing strong” on a Friday, he easily gives the impression that his week contained the same kind of work and stresses that ours did.

Giving fans that impression is Rock’s magic trick, and it’s also real.