Is there hope for Oprah Winfrey's floundering OWN yet?
The two-hour premiere of Winfrey's new series "Oprah's Next Chapter" gave OWN its highest ratings for a Sunday premiere since the network's January 2011 launch weekend, scoring a 1.1 rating in the network's target women 25-54 demographic and 1.1 million total viewers.
Sunday night's debut of the series, which aired from 9 to 11 p.m., featured Winfrey interviewing Aerosmith rocker-turned-"American Idol" judge Steven Tyler at his Lake Sunapee, N.H., residence.
To put Sunday night's numbers in context, the "Oprah's Next Chapter" premiere represented a 463 percent increase in the demo over the network's December 2011 average in that time period. Only the premiere of "Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes," which aired on Jan. 1, 2011, has scored better than the "Next Chapter" premiere, drawing a 1.11 in the demo and 1.2 million total viewers.
Upcoming episodes of the interview series will find Winfrey touring Skywalker Ranch with "Star Wars" maestro George Lucas, taking part in a slumber party at celebrity cook Paula Deen's estate in Georgia, and visiting Haiti with Sean Penn to survey how the nation is faring since the devastating 2010 earthquake.
