selena gomez

Disney Channel's next princess has officially been crowned.

The network's Friday night premiere of 'Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie,' starring Selena Gomez, averaged 11.4 million viewers, with 4.5 million in the kids 6-11 demo and 4.0 million in tweens 9-14. That makes it the most-watched cable program of 2009, topping 'Jon & Kate Plus 8''s separation episode in June (10.6 million viewers).

Even better news for Disney: The 'Wizards' movie is now the second-highest-rated entertainment telecast over the past two years, according to Variety. 'High School Musical 2' is first with 17.2 million. An August 2007 episode of 'Hannah Montana' (10.7 million) and 'Wizards on Deck With Hannah Montana' (9.3 million) rank third and fourth, respectively.

Disney is doing everything they can to make sure that their target demo of 9-14 year olds can't breathe without choking on the Russos of Wizards of Waverly Place. Other than that, And with Miley Cyrus talking publicly about life after Hannah Montana, whenever that might be, it's time to look to Wizards of Waverly Place's Selena Gomez. As such, Disney has renewed Wizards for a third season and even greenlit a telefilm for the property.

What they really need to do is stream it on Hulu to ensure it is. The kids are online, you know.