Wendy Williams Lifetime Biopic Scores Big Ratings

Wendy Williams’ drama-filled biopic was a ratings hit, dominating the cable TV ratings during its premiere on Lifetime over the weekend.

The highly anticipated “Wendy Williams: The Movie” was watched by more than 2.15 million viewers on Saturday, making it the highest-rated cable program of the night, according to Showbuzz Daily. Not far behind her in the ratings was Williams’ companion documentary “Wendy Williams: A Mess,” which brought in 1.9 million viewers.

These P2+ ratings, which measures the number of viewers over the age of two, do not include reruns and DVR viewers, which is likely to push total viewership of the movie even higher.

Staring Ciera Payton (“The Oval” “Madea’s Family Funeral”) and directed by Darren Grant (“Diary of Mad Black Woman”), the Wendy Williams movie chronicled the outspoken media personality’s life thus far—from her suburban upbringings in New Jersey, to the ups and downs of her 35-year career in radio and television. The movie also focuses on her rocky 21-year marriage to Kevin Hunter, played by Morocco Omari.

Lifetime, which has struck ratings gold in recent years with Black entertainment-focused movies and biopics (“Surviving R.Kelly” “Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B), has started 2021 off with a bang.  The three-hour Salt-N-Pepa biopic, which aired a week earlier than the Wendy Williams movie, received more than 1.5 million viewers, in addition to another 1.1 million viewers for the subsequent Lifetime special about the pioneering rap group, according to ShowBuzz Daily.

Wendy Williams

The Wendy Williams movie was the second-highest rated Lifetime original movie since 2016, behind “The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel,” which premiered to 2.7 viewers last year, according to ShowBuzz Daily.

Lifetime’s Saturday night winning streak doesn’t show any signs of slowing down soon, as the long-awaited documentary “Whitney Houston & Bobbi Kristina: Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” an in-depth look at the lives of the late mother-daughter pair, will air 2/6 at 8 p.m. ET.  In addition, “Death Saved My Life,” starring Meagan Good, premieres February 13 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.