Date: 24th January 2001

Will The Old West(ern) Live Again ?


In what could easily lead to another revival of TV westerns, the Sunday TNT telecast of Crossfire Trail, based on a story by Louis L'Amour and starring Tom Selleck, produced the highest ratings for an original movie ever shown on cable.

According to the network, the film drew a 9.6 cable rating, representing 7.3 million homes, Sunday night. Selleck, who also exec produced the TV movie, had appeared in two other westerns based on L'Amour novels, The Shadow Riders and The Sacketts, but neither drew anything close to the numbers that Trail did. The previous record for a made-for-cable movie was held by USA Network's 1990 movie China Lake Murders, which pulled in 4.3 million homes.

Source: Studio Briefing