Army Wives Television Program

Sunday's debut of "Army Wives" on Lifetime scored the network's best ratings for a series premiere in its two-decade history, buoying the channel's hopes for its new summer schedule. The ensemble drama set on an Army post drew an average of 3.5 million viewers, small by broadcast network standards but good enough to beat the previous Lifetime record held by the FBI drama "Missing" for its 2003 premiere.

The FIRST few episodes of last year's premiere season of "Army Wives" played out with the chaos, speed and tragic whimsy of a John Waters movie.

The FIRST few episodes of last year's premiere season of "Army Wives" played out with the chaos, speed and tragic whimsy of a John Waters movie.

Sunday's debut of "Army Wives" on Lifetime scored the network's best ratings for a series premiere in its two-decade history, buoying the channel's hopes for its new summer schedule. The ensemble drama set on an Army post drew an average of 3.5 million viewers, small by broadcast network standards but good enough to beat the previous Lifetime record held by the FBI drama "Missing" for its 2003 premiere.

"FROM the executive producer of 'Grey's Anatomy' " is TV shorthand for "please, please let this be another big, fat hit" and Lifetime's new series "Army Wives" uses it liberally. With its racially and economically diverse cast of characters, "Army Wives" does bear a resemblance to the hospital drama (there is, in the pilot, the requisite sex-in-the-public-bathroom scene). But of much greater interest is the subject matter.

"FROM the executive producer of 'Grey's Anatomy' " is TV shorthand for "please, please let this be another big, fat hit" and Lifetime's new series "Army Wives" uses it liberally. With its racially and economically diverse cast of characters, "Army Wives" does bear a resemblance to the hospital drama (there is, in the pilot, the requisite sex-in-the-public-bathroom scene). But of much greater interest is the subject matter.