I watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip last night, and they featured a rendition of “O, Holy Night” that was just wonderful. It was performed by displaced New Orleans musicians, and I can’t stop listening to it. You can get the free download here in the Music From the Show box. I love that song, but because I have declared a “Celine-free” zone around me at work, I have to skip that song on the various CD’s we play at work. Now I can just play this version continuously!
I had no idea that song was (legitimately) available for download! 
I usually delete shows from my TiVo right after I watch them, but I hung on to this episidoe until just a couple of days ago so that I could watch/hear that song again. Thanks! 
I read somewhere that they will be repeating that episode on Monday (Christmas Day) but I don’t know how accurate the info is. And I was kind of surprised to learn the arrangement was written by the musical director of the show. It was inspired by a Canadian Brass arrangement. They had a version that had a very upbeat, New Orlean-sy beat verse, but decided to stick with the more somber version…a good move, I think.
Great! Thank you very much - I really enjoyed that episode (especially after watching the abomination that was the House Christmas episode), and the music gave it that nice send-off into hiatus.
I went and downloaded it as well. It’s unusual for a song to give chills to both my husband and I and this song accomplished that as we watched it on the original airing. I even teared up when the words would have been “. . .for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn’” I only hope that’s the truth for New Orleans this year.
(Side note: a dear friend had her life uprooted by Katrina, and she’s doing well, but I know she was among the very lucky ones. I hope that people continue to be reminded of the tremendous need in the Gulf Coast region and send as much as they can.)
That would be odd, since it was repeated earlier this week. That would make three airings for that episode, and only one for all of the others. I’m not disagreeing with you, just saying that it seems an odd thing for NBC to do.
It’s entirely possible that the article I read was a week old…or older. You are probably right, that the repeated episode was the one I caught. It didn’t say Christmas, it just said next Monday, and I assumed…well, we know how that works out! Can’t find the article right now to check.