Lifetime's 'Client List' Counts 3.9 Million Viewers

The premiere of Jennifer Love Hewitt's original movie on Monday night about a housewife turned prostitute hooked Lifetime the second-largest telefilm delivery of 2010 among key demos.

The Client List counted a 2.9 rating and some 3.9 million viewers on July 19, according to Nielsen data. Included in that total were 2.09 million adults 25 to 54, 1.88 million persons 18 to 49, 1.36 million females 18 to 49 and 1.5 million women 25 to 54.

The Client List ranks as this year's second most-watched original movie premiere on cable, behind only the Jan. 23 debut of Lifetime's The Pregnancy Pact, among females 18 to 34 (630,000), females 18 to 49, women 25-54, persons 18 to 49, adults 25 to 54 and persons 18 to 34 (871,000), according to official's at the women's targeted-ndetwork. All told, the top six original movies on ad-supported cable during 2010  to date among women 18+ are aired either on Lifetime or Lifetime Movie Network.

Inspired by a true story, The Client List follows Samantha Horton (Hewitt), a former Texas homecoming queen and physical therapist. When both she and her husband are laid off from their jobs, Horton accepts an offer to work at a massage studio in a nearby town, not realizing that the other staff members are actually prostitutes. Eventually realizing what was going on, Horton, desperate to provide for her family, goes along for the ride. But when the police raid the business, she ends up as a key witness in the case -- putting 69 high-profile johns in handcuffs and bringing a small Texas town to its knees. Cybil Shepherd plays Horton's mother Cassie.