TV movies based on infamous South Florida crimes draw millions.
Viewers nationwide tuned into two Miamibased productions on cable this past week.
On Lifetime, the premiere of “Cocaine Godmother: The Griselda Blanco Story” starring Catherine Zeta-Jones drew 1.85 million total viewers Saturday, according to tvbythenumbers, a website that follows TV ratings.
The two-hour movie drew better ratings than the cable network’s previous Saturday night original movie, “A Tale of Two Coreys” which drew 885,000 total viewers Jan. 6, according to the website. The Griselda Blanco movie chronicled how the Colombian native rose from a mother of three in Queens, New York, to a powerful drug lord in Miami in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 2012 at the age of 69, she was fatally shot in Medellin, Colombia, by motorcycle-riding assassins, a concept she was credited for importing to South Florida.
Meanwhile, the debut episode of FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” had 2.2 million viewers on Jan. 17.
That was down from its predecessor, the highlypublicized “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” which debuted with 2.49 million total viewers two years ago, according to tvbythenumbers. The numbers are for the original broadcast and not for encores or delayed viewing.
In the first Versace episode which was partly filmed in Miami Beach, producers recreated the fatal shooting of the fashion mogul by San Diego hustler Andrew Cunanan.
The following episodes will explore Cunanan’s four other victims and the police manhunt for him.
The second of nine episodes will be broadcast at 10 p.m. tonight on FX.