Devious Maids Episodic Still - H 2013
LifetimeA slew of new originals kicked off Saturday night on Lifetime with the premiere of Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret. With the exception of Prosecuting Casey Anthony, the two-hour telepic topped all of the network’s Lifetime Original Movie franchise entries this year.
Jodi Arias averaged 3.1 million viewers in its inaugural airing, with 1.3 million of them adults 25-54 and 1.2 million of them adults 18-49. With women, the movie averaged 927,000 in the 25-54 demo and 870,000 18-49-ers.
Lifetime’s latest original, Devious Maids, kicked off with relatively sturdy ratings Sunday night.
The series netted 2 million viewers in its inaugural outing, averaging 865,000 adults 25-54 and 826,000 adults 18-49. For the network, the premiere of Devious Maids comes in just shy of recent season debuts for fellow dramas The Client List and Army Wives. Both of those series, which also air on Sundays, returned earlier in the year to 2.2 million viewers.
Among Lifetime’s targeted female demographics, Devious Maids averaged 662,000 women 25-54 and 633,000 women 18-49.
Devious Maids creator Marc Cherry‘s follow-up, after a near-decade run with Desperate Housewives, has seen a big marketing push from the network. The telenovela adaptation led up to its premiere with online sampling in both English and Spanish.
From ABC Studios, Devious Maids was originally developed as a pilot for ABC. Lifetime ordered a 13-episode freshman season from Cherry last summer. It stars Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty), Dania Ramirez (Entourage), Roselyn Sanchez (Without a Trace), Edy Ganem (Livin’ Loud) and Judy Reyes (Scrubs).
Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva, canceled in 2012 only to be resurrected, also returned last night. The season opener was only a shade short of last summer’s premiere, averaging 2.2 million viewers (compared to 2.3 million last June).
