Nickelodeon received an early holiday ratings gift Friday as its Merry Christmas Drake & Josh original movie drew 8.1 million total viewers, a network record for a live action film.

The movie, which re-untied long-running Drake & Josh series stars Drake Bell, Josh Peck and Miranda Cosgrove, beat out the 7.6 million viewers generated by Nick’s Nov. 8 iGo To Japan telepic which also starred Cosgrove and is based on her popular iCarly series, according to Nick.

The movie also drew a network record 4.3 million kids 2-11 and ranked as the No. 1 entertainment show on cable for the week of Dec. 1 to Dec. 7, topped only by the 8.8 million viewers that tuned into ESPN’s Dec. 1 Jacksonville Jaguars-Houston Texans Monday Night Football contest.

Merry Christmas Drake & Josh also ranks as the number-three entertainment telecast with total viewers on cable for the year-to-date, behind only Nick’s Feb. 18 Fairly Oddbaby animated movie (8.8 million viewers) and Disney Channel’s June 20 original movie Camp Rock (8.9 million.)