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After Promising Debut, Oprah’s OWN Is Now Pulling In Fewer Viewers than Discovery Health

Mar 1, 2011  •  Post A Comment

After a promising debut in January, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN is now pulling fewer viewers than little-watched Discovery Health, the network it replaced, reports the New York Times.

The fledgling network drew an average of 135,000 viewers on average in February, with only 45,000 of those women between 25 to 54 years old, which is the demographic the network wants to reach, the article notes. The viewer level last month is about 10% less than Discovery Health’s ratings a year earlier, it adds.

OWN Chief Executive Christina Norman said that one lesson to take away is that Oprah’s fans want a lot of original programming, and that OWN’s goal remains to double Discovery Health’s ratings.

Winfrey and Discovery Communications have been counseling patience, noting that Winfrey won’t have much of a presence on the network until after her syndicated show ends in September, the piece says.

One Comment

  1. We will all miss Oprah on ABC as many Americans have seen her for over 2 decades. She is being re-run daily more than one time so more demographics are able to watch her now. I am especially looking forward to seeing her more often than just 5 days a week on the OWN network after September. I learned today while at work at DISH Network that OWN is HD is coming to DISH on Thursday before Comcast or Direct TV. I am happy that DISH believes in the success of OWN and the confidence to provide OWN in HD before all the rest proves that.

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