First the good news: Lindsay Lohan’s OWN network debut kicked the ratings for the sought-after women 18-34 demo on that channel up more than 230 percent from the previous year.
… The bad news, though, is that despite plenty of advance hype and curiosity about Lohan’s post-rehab career and life reboot, landed with a modest pop rather than a bang, failing to reach the ratings of her earlier “Oprah’s Next Chapter” interview and placing her third in unscripted shows on the network.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sunday night’s first episode had 693,000 viewers, which marked the best unscripted premiere for the struggling OWN network so far this year. By contrast, August’s interview drew 892,000 viewers when it first aired, and another 504,000 in an encore.
“We had set out to try to attract a different type of viewer and audience to the network and we felt like we did that — especially young women demo which is up by triple digits,” OWN president Erik Logan told Deadline of the demo of viewers that normally “don’t come here.” That uptick was proven in the premiere’s .53 rating, which was up 231 percent from the same night last year.
“We thought this was a great opportunity for us — we feel great about the young end of the numbers, and the premiere in a time slot we never programmed before on a most competitive night of television,” Logan said.
But among other reality shows on OWN, the eight-episode “Lindsay” came in third in total viewers, behind self-help guru “Iyanla: Fix My Life” and lesser Jackson family sister “Life with La Toya.”
No Comments