Rick Kissell / Variety /
Lifetime scored big Saturday night with the premiere of its Whitney Houston biopic and two other programs related to the late singer.
Nielsen estimates that an average audience of roughly 4.5 million watched “Whitney” from 8 to 10 p.m., making Angela Bassett’s directorial debut the week’s most-watched cable entertainment program. It’s also Lifetime’s most-watched telecast since 6.06 million watched the premiere of “Flowers in the Attic” on the comparable Saturday one year ago.
In key demos, “Whitney” earned a 1.7 rating/6 share in adults 18-49 — more than doubling the top-rated broadcaster in the time period ( ABC’s premiere of Adam Sandler feature film “Just Go With It” did a 0.8/3). It also did a big 2.5/10 in women 18-49.
More than 90 percent of the viewers stuck with Lifetime at 10 p.m. for the special “ Bobby Brown : Remembering Whitney,” which averaged 4.1 million viewers. And at 11 p.m., the special “Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances,” hosted by Houston’s longtime mentor and creative partner Clive Davis, drew 3.2 million viewers.
Lifetime ran an encore of the entire block Sunday night.
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