Lifetime orders 10 hourlong episodes of Houston Family Chronicles

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lifetime is going into business with the family of Whitney Houston.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the female-focused cable network has ordered 10 hourlong episodes of The Houston Family Chronicles, a docuseries revolving around the lives of the late singer's family members.

Among those set to be featured in the series, which will launch this year, are Houston's mother, Cissy Houston; daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown; sister-in-law and manager Pat Houston; her husband, Gary; and their daughter, Rayah.

Houston died Feb. 11, on the eve of the Grammy Awards. She was 48.

"The tragic loss of Whitney Houston left a void in the hearts of people all over the world, but certainly none more so than her beloved family,” Lifetime exec vp programming Rob Sharenow said in announcing the news Friday. “In this series, the multi-generations of the Houston family will bravely reveal their lives as they bond together to heal, love and grow.”

Houston Family Chronicles (working title) largely will center on Pat as she and the family continue to grapple with Houston's passing and as she and Gary (Houston's brother) raise their teenage daughter and support Bobbi Kristina, the late singer's daughter, while maintaining the Grammy winner's business and estate.

The news comes two months after OWN's Oprah Winfrey interviewed Bobbi Kristina during a special that scored record ratings for the struggling network, drawing 3.5 million viewers over the course of the 90-minute broadcast. Whether interest in the singer's extended family will continue to hold for the Lifetime series remains to be seen.

For her part, Bobbi Kristina has pushed on with a career in front of the camera, recently signing on to recur on Tyler Perry's TBS comedy, For Better or Worse.

For Lifetime, the Houston docuseries becomes the cable network's latest splashy entry, following its Lindsay Lohan-fronted Elizabeth Taylor biopic Liz & Dick.