By Chris Richburg
With a ratings victory for his first starring role in the television adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Sean "Diddy" Combs is looking to take his acting endeavors to the next level.
"I’m out here [in Hollywood] looking for houses now," Combs told AllHipHop.com. "I’m going to officially be bi coastal. I feel like in order to make movies, you gotta be where they are being made."
Combs is celebrating the success of the three-hour television production of A Raisin in the Sun, which drew 12.7 million viewers when it premiered Monday (Feb. 25) on ABC.
The showing made it TV's highest-rated original movie since November 2005 among key demographic audiences.
"It’s an extremely gratifying feeling, especially when you’re doing something artistic that so many people were skeptical about or didn’t believe that you could do," the mogul told AllHipHop.com.
A Raisin in the Sun, which ranked number one for the night, allowed the network to turn in its strongest night amongst viewers in three months.
"To see such a huge audience show up. I don’t think people really understand the level of this audience and then also the core demographic," the mogul explained. "So this is number one. Not just with 18-35. Not just your African-Americans. Also with White women 18-50."
For Combs, the reaction to the film and his performance comes as motivation to shoot for more quality projects to build on.
"This has really set a tone out there in Hollywood that I could draw, that I could bring people to the box office and put people in seats as I make this transition," Combs said. "It’s one of my proudest artistic moments because I kept on working hard. I didn’t give up."