BET’s miniseries “The New Edition Story” got off to a gangbusters start Tuesday night. The network simulcast the premiere on sibling network Centric, and between them both, they pulled in 4.4 million pairs of eyeballs — 2.6 million of which were in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic — for the two-hour installment.
BET attracted the lion’s share of the audience, with 4.2 million total viewers and 2.5 million in the demo. That overall 2.6 million figure in the demo translates to a 1.44 rating, outdoing most of the series on broadcast TV that night. On BET, it was the network’s highest-rated premiere in five years.
The miniseries charts the course of Ur-boy band New Edition from their humble Boston beginnings to global megastardom, detailing the controversy and personnel changes along the way, and ruminating on the ultimate cost of fame. The cast includes Bryshere Y. Gray, Elijah Kelley, Luke James, Keith Powers, Algee Smith, and Woody McClain as the adult members of New Edition. “The New Edition Story” is executive produced by Jesse Collins (“Real Husbands of Hollywood”) for JCE Films, a division of Jesse Collins Entertainment; directed by Chris Robinson (“ATL”) and co-produced by Brooke Payne, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe, Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant, and Bobby Brown.
The second installment of the miniseries airs Wednesday, Jan. 25 on BET, and will finish on Thursday, Jan. 26.
