Numbers-Don’t-Lie :: Rating Booster, Oprah Breaks OWN Records

During an exclusive interview with Whitney Houston‘s only child, Bobbi Kristina Brown, sister-in-law/manager, Patricia Houston, and brother, Gary Houston, Oprah‘s network “OWN” pulled in the highest ratings that the network has seen in its 14-month running time. The interview was a part of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” segment on the network, where she travels from place to place to interview celebrities. The special was initially taped on March 2 and after almost 2 weeks of diligent promotion, it was the most anticipated interview in TV land. Airing exactly one month after the death of the singer, the Oprah Winfrey Network generated 3.5 million viewers for the special that answered fans’ expected questions about the life and death of Whitney Houston. OWN has struggled with ratings since the network first launched on January 1, 2011 — superseding the Discovery Channel. Prior to the Houston’s family interview the highest ratings the network had received were in January 2012 for an interview with Joel Osteen, which raked in 1.6 million viewers. 3.5 million spectators Sunday showed that they knew about and could find the network if the programming was worth the effort. Before the interview aired Sunday, Oprah tweeted that she wouldn’t be able to watch the premiere because the channel was not available in the town of Kingsland, GA, where she was staying in a hotel, so instead she would be screening tweets for reactions. Eventually, she found a sports bar that carried the channel but still tweeted her reactions to her fans. Here are a couple of tweets that we found intriguing:

Will these record breaking numbers put pressure on Oprah and the network to keep the numbers growing by scoring more exclusive interviews? Only time will tell. Next Sunday, catch Lady GaGa and her mother, Cynthia, for another exclusive interview on the OWN network.

[Wenn, The Washington Post, The New York Times]

-@India Renee