Steel Magnolias Breaks Lifetime Ratings Records

Steel Magnolias was a hit for the Lifetime network on Sunday. The star-studded remake earned a whopping 6.5M total viewers according to Nielsen. Of those viewers, 2.5M were young adult women (25-54), the most young viewership the network has received in its history.

There’s more to celebrate: the Queen Latifah produced film was the network’s third best program of all-time. It also brought Lifetime’s best numbers since the 2006 biopic about American Idol and ESSENCE Music Festival alumna Fantasia Barrino.

It’s no secret that Steel Magnolias was a hit with ESSENCE.com viewers. Many gleamed with excitement after the telecast. TamaraNYC tweeted, “I loved it and would love to see more productions like this on TV.” While BowmanBridgette shared, “It was soooo good! It’s Queen Latifah’s best performance to date. [It was] better than the original.”

What did you think of the remake? Was it everything you hoped it would be?