After producing a string of hit biopics on popular female singers (see: Aaliyah, Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, etc.), many forecasted Lifetime’s latest effort – a film about the life and times of current pop superstar Britney Spears – would be a homerun. Well, that was the case until they saw the almost parodic casting and shambolic trailer.
In addition, the pop princess the unauthorized bio was designed to depict gave the movie’s production a royal thumbs down. The aforementioned (and the unforgiving Twitter slamming it suffered) all added to ‘Britney Ever After’ [which aired February 18th] being a ratings miss for the women’s network.
Details inside:
Viewership = 1.01 million
To put this into context, here are the ratings for the last four “female singer biopics” Lifetime has produced:
- ‘Surviving Compton’ [‘Michel’le]: 2.3 million
- ‘Unbreak My Heart’ [Toni Braxton]: 3.6 million
- ‘Whitney’ [Whitney Houston]: 4.5 million
- ‘Aaliyah: Princess of R&B’ [Aaliyah]: 3.2 million
[source]