The Lifetime Original Movie "Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B" drew a strong 3.2 million total viewers in its world premiere Saturday night.
Given how active commentary on the film was on Twitter while the movie aired, I’m not at all surprised (even though most of the chatter was critical of the film). So while it was almost universally-panned, those who were doing the "panning" also helped make it this year’s #2 cable TV movie telecast, behind another Lifetime product, "Flowers in the Attic," which holds the #1 slot.
So, we can all continue to trash Lifetime and its programming (I’m certainly guilty of doing so), but the network’s ratings are really the most important thing, when it comes right down to dollars and cents, which, ultimately, is what matters, since this is after all a business.
Also, "Aaliyah" ranked #1 on Google Trends on Saturday.
I believe it was also a top trender on Twitter while it aired.
Immediately following the movie at 10pm ET/PT, the hour-long documentary "Beyond the Headlines: Aaliyah" also performed well (I recall reading some say that the documentary was far superior to the movie), delivering 2.7 million Total Viewers.
If you missed it, you should know that Lifetime will encore "Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B" tonight at 8pm ET/PT.
The telepic was produced by Aaliyah Productions, Inc. Howard Braunstein, Debra Martin Chase and Wendy Williams served as executive producers. Read what Williams had to say about the backlash the film faced here.