Lifetime announces premiere date of Casey Anthony movie, starring Rob Lowe

Perhaps in a move to quickly get the bad taste of their critical and commercial disappointment “Liz & Dick” (starring Lindsay Lohan) out of their mouth, Lifetime is already making a move forward by announcing when they are going to have their next landmark TV movie hitting the airwaves. Just based on the premise and the cast alone, we have a feeling that this one has the potential to do a little bit better.

The network confirmed Wednesday that “Prosecuting Casey Anthony,” a project based on the book “Imperfect Justice” and featuring prosecutor Jeff Ashton, will premiere on January 19 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. While Saturdays are not particularly great nights for television in America, they can fare rather well when you are talking about movies or other programming the people only have to watch on one occasion.

Rob Lowe (“Parks and Recreation”) stars in the project as Ashton, whereas Elizabeth Mitchell (“Lost”) plays fellow prosecutor Linda Drane Burdick and Oscar Nunez of “The Office” will handle the role of defense lawyer Jose Baez. As a character in the movie, Casey Anthony is not set to have that much of a presence, as the movie is more about her trial and the people working around it than it is her as a human being.  We do expect some strong ratings for this project, especially since Lowe is a Lifetime TV movie veteran at this point and is familiar to their audience. (Plus, there is that whole issue of the subject matter…)

What do you think about Lifetime airing a Casey Anthony TV movie: is it a smart business move, or just a bit too icky for your taste considering the trial was only a matter of a year and a half ago? If you want to see specifically the ratings for “Liz & Dick,” you can do so here.

Photo: Lifetime