Not a lot of fizz for Lifetime’s ‘Liz’

The tabloids have long since moved on from Lindsay Lohan, and maybe viewers have too.

Lohan’s heavily promoted Lifetime movie “Liz & Dick” drew decent ratings on Sunday night, but not as high as you’d expect from the amount of hype surrounding Lohan’s first film in years.

“Liz” averaged 3.5 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, including 1.3 million adults 25-54, 1.3 million 18-49s, 1.1 million women 18-49 and 1 million women 25-54.

The movie became the fourth-highest-rated film on cable this year, though finishing behind three other Lifetime movies, and improved on Lifetime’s season-to-date average for original movies by 40 percent in total viewers and 52 percent in women 18-49.

Still, that was likely little comfort for Lohan, a woman who was once seen as one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars.

This was her second made-for-TV movie, with her previous one, “Labor Pains,” airing on ABC Family in 2009. She had just one other project in the years between.

Much of the attention she's attracted over those years has been for the trainwreck that is her personal life. She's been to rehab multiple times, in and out of jail, accused of stealing, and gotten in several car accidents. Studios won’t touch her because with such a history she’s too expensive to insure.

Though Lohan showed decent acting chops in early movies such as “Mean Girls” and “A Prairie Home Companion,” she has never tackled a challenge like she did in “Liz,” playing a real person.

Alas, this might be the rare case where a movie was actually too good for its own good.

No one would mistake “Liz and Dick” for a great film. A snapshot of the passionate but turbulent love affair between actors Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, “Liz” would have been entirely forgettable if not for the fact that Lohan was in it.

But while Lohan’s performance was widely dismissed by critics, the movie wasn’t bad enough to rate as a guilty pleasure.

If the film had been horrible, it probably would have fared much better in the ratings simply for its camp value.

Instead, Nielsen data shows that a chunk of viewers tuned out of the movie after the first hour. 

***

In cable ratings for the week ended Nov. 25:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): ESPN, TBS, USA, FX, ABC Family.

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): ESPN, USA, Disney Channel, History, ABC Family.

Top five cable news networks in primetime (25-54): MSNBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, HLN, CNBC.

Top five cable news programs (total viewers): 1. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Monday, 8 p.m.); 2. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.); 3. Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.); 4. Fox News Channel's "The Five" (Monday, 5 p.m.); 5. Fox News Channel's "Special Report with Bret Baier" (Monday, 6 p.m.)

Top movie (18-49s): ABC Family's "Home Alone" (Sunday, 6 p.m.) 1.45 million.

Top sporting event (total viewers): ESPN's "Monday Night Football: Chicago/San Francisco" (Monday, 8:30 p.m.) 12.47 million.

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: ESPN's "NFL Football: Chicago/San Francisco" (Monday, 8:30 p.m.); AMC's "The Walking Dead" (Sunday, 9 and 10 p.m.); ESPN's "SportsCenter" (Monday, 11:34 p.m.); FX's "Sons of Anarchy" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.).

Show on the rise: Nickelodeon's "iCarly," Friday, 8 p.m. The series finale averaged 6.43 million total viewers and became the top program of the month among kids 2-11 and tweens 9-14.

Show on the decline: MTV's "Teen Mom" Monday, 10 p.m. The reality series averaged 1.44 million viewers 18-34, off 29 percent from 2.04 million the previous week.

Tags: cable, cable news, cable ratings, cable recap, camp, DSNY, Elizabeth Taylor, HIST, Hollywood It Girl, LIF, lifetime, lifetime movie, lindsay lohan, liz & dick, liz and dick, primetime, rare, ratings, reality, TBSC, TOP, touch, viewers