While the adventures of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow kept Americans on the edge of their seats in the 1930s, 21st century television viewers weren’t quite as captivated by “Bonnie & Clyde.” While the first night of the two-part miniseries drew in a healthy 9.8 million total viewers, that number was below History’s “Hatfields & McCoys” (13.1 million) and “The Bible” (14.3 million). Still, “Bonnie & Clyde”‘s numbers were good enough to make it cable’s best miniseries opening in total viewers since 2006’s “Broken Trail.”
Of course, those 9.8 million viewers were spread across sister networks — Lifetime, A&E and History — thanks to the first-ever simulcast across the three networks. History drew in the most viewers (3.7 million), with Lifetime coming in second (3.1 million) and A&E right behind it (3.0 million).
As expected, “Bonnie & Clyde” was the most tweeted about program on Sunday and ranked number one in Google Trends with more than 500,000 searches.
“Bonnie & Clyde” stars Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger as the famous bank-robbing duo, with Holly Hunter and William Hurt adding star power to the cast. The Sony Pictures Television production, from Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, marks the first-ever simulcast across Lifetime, A&E and History.
Unlike recent A+E net minis, Bonnie & Clyde only has a two-night rollout. If you weren’t one of the 9.8 million to tune in last night, take heart. “Bonnie & Clyde” will conclude tonight at 9:00pm ET, immediately following an encore of part one.