Killing Lincoln killed on TV.
The results are in, and the film version of Bill O’Reilly’s book Killing Lincoln set a viewership record on the National Geographic Channel.
Killing Lincoln, which was NatGeo’s first original scripted drama, averaged 3.4 million viewer’s during its Sunday night, two-hour premiere. The dramatization of the O’Reilly book was produced by Ridley and the late Tony Scott and narrated by Tom Hanks. Actor Billy Campbell portrayed Abraham Lincoln and Jesse Johnson (Don Johnson’s son) performed the role of John Wilkes Booth.
Killing Lincoln scored about 1 million adult viewers in the all-important 25-54 demo, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal :
“It was the biggest draw in that demo since SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden in November of 2012. It was also the biggest draw for the channel so far, out performing Inside 9/11, which drew 3 million in August 2005.”
NatGeo president Howard T. Owens had this to say about the Killing Lincoln ratings success:
“ Killing Lincoln was our latest effort to expand the original programming we present on the National Geographic Channel, while still maintaining the brand values viewers expect from us. The success we saw last night proved that authentic and entertaining are not mutually exclusive, and I think we’ve tapped into a new genre of factual drama that clearly resonates with our audience.”
National Geographic has also announced it will produce of film adaption of O’Reilly’s Killing Kennedy. Both books were huge best sellers, although they have been the subject of some criticism for containing historical errors , a claim that O’Reilly disputes. Whether you like or dislike O’Reilly himself or think he is a competent historian, some criticism of O’Reilly’s written works is politically motivated, so that should be taken into consideration.
O’Reilly just announced that he is writing a book about Jesus called … Killing Jesus (do you see a trend here?) and will published next September
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