La Liz would never settle for fourth-best.
Lindsay Lohan’s starring turn as Elizabeth Taylor in “Liz & Dick” was the year’s fourth-most-watched cable movie — bowing to good, but not spectacular, numbers Sunday night on Lifetime.
The much-ballyhooed TV movie — derided in some circles — told the story of Taylor’s torrid romance with Richard Burton (played by Grant Bowler).
It snared 3.5 million viewers from 9 to 11 p.m.
That puts it in fourth place for the year behind “Steel Magnolias,” “Drew Peterson: Untouchable” and “Abducted: The Carlina White Story,” all of which aired on Lifetime.
While “Liz & Dick” didn’t pull in the mega-ratings that some were predicting — based on what many thought was the movie’s sheer camp factor — it did represent a significant increase over what Lifetime’s movies have been averaging this year.
When the dust cleared, “Liz & Dick” showed increases of 40 percent and 52 percent in total viewers and women 18 to 49, respectively, over Lifetime’s 2012 original movie average.
It was also up 41 percent in adults 18 to 49, 22 percent in women 25 to 54 and 18 percent in adults 25 to 54, according to Nielsen.
“Liz & Dick” began with the Taylor-Burton romance on the set of “Cleopatra” and followed the couple through their tumultuous, 12-year relationship in which they married and divorced each other twice. Lifetime repeated the movie last night at 8.