Lifetime’s remake of Flowers in the Attic was a ratings hit Saturday, luring a strong 6.1 million viewers for its two-hour premiere telecast, according to Nielsen data. And it wasn’t just mean grandmas who watched: The movie notched a 1.9 rating among viewers under 50, matching the combined demo rating of ABC, CBS, and NBC combined in the 8 to 10 p.m. time slot. (The three broadcasters aired reruns, but still.) Lifetime says Flowers was the most-watched basic cable movie since November 2012. Also worth noting: Flowers drew twice as many viewers as the network’s December premiere of its Bonnie & Clyde miniseries (though that effort also ran on History and A&E, bowing to a combined audience of 9.8 million).
Over at Discovery, last night’s premiere installment of the network’s heavily promoted (and first-ever) scripted miniseries Klondike was a bit of a Nielsen disappointment. The network says 3.4 million viewers watched last night, putting it well below the same-day audience for recent Discovery events such Shark Week’s Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives (4.8 million) and Skywire Live (8.5 million). Klondike didn’t even match the 3.6 million who watched the December 2012 series premiere of Amish Mafia. On the plus side, it’s quite possible Klondike will see a big ratings uptick from DVR replays (not to mention additional viewers from countless Discovery reruns of the three-part event). And for a network known for its unscripted fare, Discovery scored surprisingly strong reviews for Klondike.
