The original Rent movie was released in 2005 where it made 31.6 million USD in box office. Set in the early 1990s, this musical displays young New Yorkers hoping to survive in a community that is looked down on for their failure in career, love, and health-primarily struggling with the AIDs epidemic. FOX debuted a Live recreation of the at-the-time controversial musical, this time featuring stars such as: Vanessa Hudgens, James Leyva, and Jordan Fisher.

During the first commercial break, the cast made a statement saying that the video audiences saw was actually from the final dress rehearsal the day before it aired. This was partially because one of the actors broke his ankle during dress rehearsal and couldn't perform Live. One downfall of the filming decision was that the actors supposedly were not singing to the fullest potential in order to save their voices for the next day's performance. However, the last act was actually live, and it featured some of the original cast of Rent.

The show was highly anticipated due to the success of FOX's live version of The Sound of Music starring Carrie Underwood. However, Rent live did not live up to its expectations. It fell short in production and sound quality. The live audience was loud and excited during the performances, which often overpowered the microphoned cast making it impossible to hear their singing. The hardworking cast did manage to successfully recreate the ambience of the original characters, but it was hardly enough to make a good show after all the other flaws.