Nellie Andreeva

The Wizards Of Waverly Place and star Selena Gomez couldn’t quite capture the magic of the hit franchise’s heyday. Last night’s Disney Channel original movie The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex, delivered 5.9 million total viewers. That was less than half the audience of the 2009 TV movie Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie (13.5 million), which ranks as the #2 cable TV movie ever (behind High School Musical 2). Still, Alex vs. Alex did better than recent Disney Channel films like Girl Vs. Monster (4.9 million) and Let It Shine (5.7 million). It delivered 2.9 million Kids 2-11, 2.3 million Kids 6-11 and 2.2 million Tweens 9-14, ranking as the #1 cable TV telecast of 2013 to date in Tweens 9-14, the #2 cable TV telecast in Kids 2-11 and Kids 6-11, and the #1 kids’ cable TV telecast in Total Viewers. The hourlong special buoyed an all-new episode of Gravity Falls to a series high in Total Viewers (4.5 million). It posted its #2 telecast ever in Tweens 9-14 (1.7 million) and #3 telecast in Kids 2-11 (2.5 million).

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