Celebrating its 35th anniversary on BET, the historic series ROOTS premiered on BET to a record-breaking 4.1 million viewers. According to the Nielsen Company, the Friday, December 21 ROOTS premiere to the network is now the #1 ROOTS performance in cable history and among the month's top 10 ad-supported weeknight primetime cable specials for adults 18-49.
The 8:00 p.m.* premiere of ROOTS PART ONE on BET averaged 1.2 million viewers among 823,000 households, garnering a solid .90 household coverage rating. ROOTS PART TWO, which premiered at 10:30 p.m.,* averaged 1.3 million viewers among 875,000 households garnering a 1.0 coverage rating making it December's #1 weeknight primetime cable special among black adults 18-34. ROOTS PART TWO was also the #1 telecast in December on BET. The ROOTS franchise enjoyed triple digit gains within its time slot.*All times EST.About BET NetworksBET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 98 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa.Videos