TVSquad

I have a tween-aged girl in the household, so we watch a fair amount of Disney Channel. I'll come clean and even announce that Miley Cyrus, The Cheetah Girls, and Demi Lovato share iPod space with AC/DC, Jeff Beck, and Aerosmith. Hey, those Disney Channel tunes are catchy, and they're easy to dance, I mean, walk to. I draw the line at the Jonas Brothers, though.

But about 10 minutes into the new Cheetah Girls: One World movie the other night, my daughter looked at me and said, "I was really hoping these Cheetah Girls movies would get better." Yeah, me, too.

I actually liked the first two movies, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. The second, directed by High School Musical alum Kenny Ortega, was a downright cute tale about the Girls' escapades in Spain.

But this third movie just flatlined for me and, apparently, for my daughter, too. Lacking Ortega's directorial expertise and the presence of Raven-Symone, who's moved on to nurture her ever-expanding empire, it was just a silly tale about three giggling girls with no real substance. I know ... you're thinking, Cheetah Girls? Substance? But there was at least a modicum of it in the first two movies.

So I was surprised when an ABC press note landed in my inbox reporting that the movie beat out all competition but the Beijing Olympics on NBC, harvesting 6.2 million total primetime viewers on Friday.

The movie actually edged out the Olympics in kids 6 to 11 (2.8 million overall) and in tweens 9 to 14 (2.4 million). The numbers catapulted it into second place among all original movies scheduled on TV this summer. Capturing first place is the Disney Channel's Camp Rock, which scored 8.9 million viewers in June 20.

That either says something about NBC's programming, or about summer TV movies, in general. Probably both.

Do you have kids in the household? Did they watch/like the new Cheetah Girls movie?