newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ANGELA DAIDONE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

She's come a long way from the little sister on the family drama "Party of Five."

Jennifer Love Hewitt, who got her acting start in the Fox TV show in the 1990s and later starred as a woman who communicated with spirits in CBS' "Ghost Whisperer," has taken a bit of a turn in the new Lifetime series "The Client List."

In this show, Hewitt plays a Texas single mom who works in a full-service massage parlor to make ends meet.

The show debuted on Sunday.

According to the LA Times. "The Client List" was a movie of the same name, also starring the 33-year-old Hewitt, that ran on Lifetime in 2010. Lifetime's viewership has fallen in recent years, so the network's executives are banking on the show to bring back some of its core audience -- women ages 18 to 49, specifically.

But pre-debut hype for the "The Client List," featuring an ad campaign showing a sultry Hewitt in a provocative pose, has also attracted some attention from male viewers, network programming execs said.

The Hollywood Reporter said "The Client List" averaged 2.8 million total viewers in its opener, becoming the network's most-watched series launch since "Drop Dead Diva" on July 12, 2009, according to Nielsen.