Though Fox's "Glee, " a music-laced show about a high-school glee club, remains in the top 20 for viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, it has seen its rating drop 25% in that group so far this TV season compared with a year earlier, according to Nielsen data provided by Fox. (Fox, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.) This could signal a challenge for "Smash, " Mr. Adgate says.

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This licensee could be anyone from a garage band aspiring to a record deal or a Glee-inspired high school club that wants to record and sell CDs.

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These days, the Mendelssohn Glee Club has difficulty filling even a small concert hall.

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Gene Wisoff says the Mendelssohn Glee Club of that era reminds him of something out of a 19th-century operetta.

NPR: Storied Glee Club Faces Waning Membership

"I don't like writing essays for English therefore I won't like writing for the Writer's Club" was a very similar attitude to "I don't like "Glee" therefore I won't like anything to do with Chris Colfer".

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Mark Tughan, who founded the Glee Club group based in Birmingham, thinks spectators have become more discerning, thanks mainly to a younger generation who have grown up watching comedy online.

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