It’s official: no one does original TV movies better than real-life BFF’s Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Princess Protection Program—a made-for-TV movie the two 16-year-olds filmed in Puerto Rico last year—made its debut last Friday on the Disney Channel, and boy was it a success! With 8.5 million total viewers, PPP became the most-watched scripted television program on cable all year! The movie also performed well with key demos (3.1 million among 6 to 11 year olds, and 3.2 million with ages 9 to 14).

The movie’s stellar ratings across the board makes Princess Protection Program the third highest-rated Disney movie of all-time, trailing only 2008’s Camp Rock (which earned 10.1 million viewers), and August 2007’s High School Musical 2 (which earned a whopping 17.2 million viewers). In the fairy-tale story, Lovato plays Princess Rosalinda Maria Montoya Fioré, a young girl who is rescued by the “Princess Protection Program” (a secret organization funded by royal families that looks after princesses who are in danger), when an evil dictator takes over her country, Rosalinda is placed under the care of Major Mason, a man from Louisiana whose daughter Carter (Gomez) strikes up a unique and special friendship with the former princess (although initially their differences lead them to dislike each other). PPP is sweet and smart, and I can see why young girls would be amused by this fish-out-of-water story about a princess who has to learn to live an ordinary life (movies where royalty meets reality are always fun!).

The movie has also won the respect of critics like Variety’s Laura Fries who praises Latina stars Lovato and Gomez: “It’s been a while since Disney has had two promising young stars so equally matched in charm and appeal to promote at the same time.” Fries’s point about Lovato and Gomez each being extremely talented is an important one—because each of these girls can certainly carry her own movie without any help from the other. In fact, in 2008, Lovato helped Camp Rock become wildly successful, while Gomez’s star-vehicle A Cinderella Story was watched by 5.3 million viewers, making it the No. 1 cable movie across all key demos for ABC Family. Not to mention that the success of Gomez’s Disney comedy series Wizards of Waverly Place has prompted Disney to make a TV movie adaptation of the show, starring Gomez, premiering in August.  

I think it’s safe to say that Gomez and Lovato are the new queens of the TV movie genre. Do you agree? Dish in the comments.