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Lifetime got it right this time around with the biographical film about the gospel group The Clark Sisters. The debut of The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel garnered more viewers than any of their other TV films this year. According to reports, the biopic has become Lifetime’s highest-rated original movie in the past four years. The First Ladies of Gospel had 2.7 million viewers during its April 11th debut.
“God is so faithful when others say you can’t GOD SAYS YOU CAN!,” Karen Clark Sheard said on Instagram about the high ratings. “That is just amazing and literally has us all speechless 2.7 Million Viewers. We thank you all so much, we love you.”
Clark Sheard also pointed out on IG that the Encore of the biopic brought in 10.2 million views, five times more than the night of the debut.
Dorinda Clark Cole was in shock about the great response the biopic received.
This is just simply amazing! I’m still in awe!,” she also wrote on Instagram.
The press release also states that the biopic was “the strongest original movie on all of television for 2020 across key demos” regarding its ratings. The TV movie was also a hot topic on Twitter. The flick’s hashtag, #TheClarkSisters, was trending in the number one spot on Twitter with over 700,000 mentions.
There were also some heavy hitters behind the scenes who helped bring the movie to life. First Ladies of Gospel was co-produced by Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah.
One way the biopic differed from some of the others is that director Christine Swanson didn’t focus on the cast’s acting experience. Since the Clark Sisters have such rich voices, she saw that it was imperative that whoever was casted to play them was able to sing. She wasn’t too concerned with their acting experience.
“Because we’re dealing with the legendary Clark Sisters who have an enduring creative, spiritual legacy in music and culture — and who also happen to be from my hometown — I felt I had to raise the bar in terms of telling their story,” Swanson told NPR. “I thought the best way to go about doing that was to go about hiring real gospel singers.”
You can stream The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel on Lifetime.com.
