You can’t win ’em all. That seems to be the takeaway from Dustin Lance Black‘s latest project When We Rise.
Despite pouring his soul into the project, along with an excellent star-studded cast and a huge marketing push by ABC, Black’s four-part miniseries When We Rise, which aired every weeknight except Tuesday last week, didn’t get quite the response it was hoping for.
According to Variety, the miniseries attracted 2.95 million viewers during its premiere last Monday, the lowest among the big four networks during the 9 p.m. Monday time slot. Ratings fell to 2.05 million during its second installment on Wednesday, and inched slightly back up to 2.12 million on Thursday.
The final installment closed with around 2.07 million.
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But, according to Black, those reports aren’t reliable.
“First and foremost, our ratings aren’t in yet,” he told the Advocate. “Those numbers do not come in for another week or so, so the verdict on who’s watching When We Rise is not in yet.”
Related: LGBTQ rights miniseries “When We Rise” premieres on ABC
He continued, “Listen, would I like more people to watch live? Sure. I would also love to own a pet unicorn.”
Black went on to say that he believes the show will do better online and on DVR.
“That’s how people watch miniseries now,” he explained. “This is not the era of Roots, where there’s three networks and you have to watch live. So, we’re really hopeful, I have to say. …If we can double our viewership on DVR, we’re considered a hit.”
But it’s not all about the ratings anyway.
“I’ll tell ya,” he added, “I’ve never had something so well received by an audience in my career. Watching the response on Twitter, on Facebook, and on social media, the notes that are coming in, the emails that are coming in, it’s been so incredibly humbling this past week to hear how people are receiving [it].”
This much appears to be true. A quick look at the top posts about the series on Twitter shows it did resonate deeply with many viewers:
Despite four nights of weeping, I am so grateful for #WhenWeRise ???This is our history. These stories matter. #lgbtq
— JennyWarriorPrincess (@JuniperHoot) March 4, 2017
My heart is so full of love, respect and appreciation for all of the people who fought for equality. @WhenWeRiseABC #WhenWeRise @CleveJones1
— Savannah Richardson (@Savannahsmiles9) March 4, 2017
Mom: I don't know if I'm ready for #WhenWeRise to be over.
Me: Ma, it's not over. It's still going on. #LoveisLove— Katella Stegmann (@KatellaStegmann) March 4, 2017
Gawd, #WhenWeRise is amazingly good. Wow.
— Brannon (@Brannona) March 4, 2017
“Before you frame this as anything disappointing, can you please point out that more people have seen this show already than ever saw Milk in the theater,” Black added. “Millions more people around the world know our history today than they did on Sunday. That’s incredibly significant.”
Related: The stunning 1971 ‘Life Magazine’ feature on gay liberation that inspired ‘When We Rise’
lauraspencer
Black is sound like Trump dismissing facts. The “all-star” cast is impressive if it were 1995. None of the stars in the miniseries are big today. An important story be told for sure, but it would have probably garnered more viewers if it was aired 10 or 20 years ago.
Our community has “risen” greatly in a very short time over the past 5 years with marriage equality, dismissal of DADT, visibility in sitcoms, dramas & music as well as a record number of celebs coming out publically. This mini-series was a bit late to the game to get a rise out of the audience.
wade.l
Why would a country so filled with racism, bigotry, homophobia be interested in such a program. The rise of the ku klux klan would garner more watchers.
DawnTrans
Ratings and how they are compiled are passe. I watched this on Hulu which isnt factored into Neilsen homes. Even networks that all stream now arent considered in the rating polls. So yes it could have a much bigger volume of viewers then Nielsen reports.
Caine
I thought it was wonderful and wonderful that ABC would take the chance on it. I’m older – I know the history – damn, I lived through most of it – but do the millennial gays? No – and it should be required viewing and @lauraspencer that is exactly the point. Personally, I thought the change in cast between the first half and the second half was off putting – especially since the more known actors were cast in the second half as the older incarnation of the characters. Honestly, I always found Dustin Lance Black to be distantly annoying – not that I know him – just his persona – but I came away thinking GOOD FOR HIM. Well done for making this happen. I remember the first gay televised kiss on PBS in Tales From the City. The fact this miniseries on primetime TV exists is major unto itself.
s
Tales of the City should be required reading/watching for gay millenials, as well. Frankly, it’s a shame the mini-series’ (all 3) don’t still get more play on Netflix, for example.
Herman75
Mary Ann Singleton was my hero. I was so lucky the local PbS station played Tales of the City. Some places in flyover land wouldn’t.
I agree with the kudos to ABC. I thought When We Rise was great television, well produced, written, directed and acted.
Heywood Jablowme
Yes, it’s significant that ABC did this. (And I doubt CBS or NBC would have, right now.) I agree with you about Dustin Lance Black too; I take back all the catty things I’ve said about DLB over the years, lol. Sure the series has flaws, which however might be better attributed to Cleve Jones rather than to DLB, as some of us were saying here on Queerty last week. The comparison with “Milk” is a good one, in an era when few movies have a major audience. It’s TV at a high level and is a major accomplishment.
bbg372
I think he is right. I could not commit two hours every night last week to watch the program live, so I recorded it and binge watched it on Sunday. I think a lot of others did too.
loua61
I thought it was great and it really held my attention. It was great to see the history and where we came from. It is something that will stay on my DVR as i will surely watch it again. And as a side note I thought the actor that played Ken Jones (Jonathon Majors) did an incredible job. What a powerful actor, he was spot on. Not to mention the fact that he is hot as hell!!!
crowebobby
As an old gay man, I felt duty-bound to watch and did, but it was depressing as hell. Why would average straight people put themselves through that.
Heywood Jablowme
You felt that way about the whole thing? Okay, I thought the AIDS ’80s were depressing, and I knew & remember all that fairly well anyway, but the ’70s part was absolutely fascinating (despite some obvious mistakes).
davidjohng
I, as well, found this series disappointing and frankly, cringe-worthy. I lived in San Francisco at that time, 70s and early 80s, and I lived around the corner from Milk’s camera store and interviewed him while I was in college. I didn’t recognize what they showed. Gay guys in the Tenderloin impassioned to demonstrate? Please. Gay guys were coming from all over to party and enjoy having gay sex. It was basically a HUGE party scene with thousands of guys cruising, doing drugs and having sex 24 hrs. As someone told me later it was bound to crash.
The basics in this series were there I guess but, the depth and quality were not. Hell, I was bored after the first couple minutes and I’m gay. I cant imagine a str8 person sitting through this nite after nite. What’s going to hold their interest? ABC provided a perfect opportunity after the Oscar win of Moonlight to piggy-back and produce a great entertaining and teaching series on our history. But instead the emphasis was on PC 2017-style and comic-book stilted dialogue. What a waste.
Wilberforce
I also lived through that history, but from a different perspective. While mainstream gays were letting hiv run rampant and making excuses for doing nothing, I was trying to stop it. Even today, mainstream culture refuses to confront the internalized homophobia and self-destructiveness in our community. And I don’t have time for ignorant celebs like dlb.
Donston
They don’t have the balls. I remember watching Elle and thinking, “we need a gay version of this, something to really confront the sh*t that’s going on in people’s lives and in people’s minds”. Internalized homophobia, isolation, self-destruction, extreme narcissism, the inability to respect one another, the non-desire to truly love and commit ourselves to each other, the victimization, the hetero worship, the obsession with retaining hetero dynamics and of course the closet cases- these are all still huge issues, and these movies and TV shows don’t want to deal with that. (Though the second season of American Crime came close). But I doubt DLB is ignorant. He knows what’s going on. He, like the majority of Hollywood, is focused on making money and being self-righteous and not making people too uncomfortable.
davidjohng
@Donston….also, rampant addictions, alcoholism, drug usage, tobacco, sex addiction, etc
Way out of portion to the general culture, or even minority culture but hey, let’s not talk about that, we’re victims with no control or responsibility for or healing our own lives.
Donston
I was including all of that in the “self-destruction” category.
Of course, I’m not saying more projects should sh*t all over the “gay community”. But I’m not seeing any progress in storytelling. Victims or heroes or buffoons is all I still see. We’re not allowed to be real people in movies and on television. And the modern internal and external conflicts that are prominent are not being exposed and investigated.
Glenn
Ive watched 3, will watch them all in time, and I think its wonderful TV. Grateful for seeing the history we knew brought to life.
Donston
I watched the first couple episodes. I was cool after that. I honestly think we’ve outgrown this kind of sappy, self-pitying, us-against-the-straights storytelling. It’s the same problem I had with Milk: conventional, depressing, dull and ultimately pointless. More movies about gay love, internalized homophobia, sexual confusion. Projects with teeth. More projects set in modern times. Even the title of this thing is corny and self-congratulatory.
surreal33
The gay community is tired boring, lazy, poor storytelling. In the past, sub-standard would fly because it was all we could get. Gay content is NOT a substitute for quality.
Donston
Moonlight was good and certainly more deserving of winning BP than the middling La La Land. But it also played it safe and was clearly made for general consumption. In general LGBT etc storytelling has fallen off a cliff this millennium with straight actors desperate to win awards and banal movies made to make us look “normal” and like basic, one-note victims or heroes only.