Fantasia, Shatner Reel 'em In

Zap2It.com | August 22, 2006

Fantasia Barrino

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Lifetime movie, 'Comedy Central Roast' draw big ratings

The title of the movie is "Life Is Not a Fairy Tale," but Lifetime has got to be feeling pretty Cinderella-like at the moment.

The movie, a biopic of "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino -- in which she plays herself -- scored some boffo ratings for the cable network over the weekend. Comedy Central also drew some nice numbers with its roast of William Shatner.

"The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life is Not a Fairy Tale" drew a hefty 6.6 million viewers in its premiere on Saturday, making it the No. 2 original movie in the cable network's 22-year history. Only the 1995 flick "Almost Golden," which starred Sela Ward as journalist Jessica Savitch.

The premiere also drew the best ratings of any original movie on cable this year among the female viewers Lifetime targets. A replay of the movie on Sunday brought in an additional 5 million sets of eyeballs.

As for Shatner, the "Comedy Central Roast" of the legendarily hammy "Star Trek" and "Boston Legal" star drew an audience of 3.6 million on Sunday night, 2.1 million of whom fell into the adults 18-49 demographic advertisers love. The show also helped the network's broadband channel, MotherLoad, to its highest-ever single-day traffic on Monday.

On the broadcast side of the ledger, the premieres of "Prison Break" and "Vanished" both drew solid ratings for FOX Monday. "Prison Break" began its second season with 9.3 million viewers -- almost exactly what it averaged last season -- and a 3.7 rating among adults 18-49.

"Vanished," meanwhile, did a nice job of holding its lead-in audience, drawing about 8.7 million viewers and a 3.0 18-49 rating.