OWN Owns Up! Winfrey’s Ratings Soar

After a rocky start, dismal ratings and bleeding millions, the Oprah Winfrey’s Own Network is now the fastest-growing cable network for African-American women 25-54 thanks in part to Tyler Perry. Perry’s nighttime soap drama “The Haves and the Have Nots” is cable’s most watched show on Tuesday nights. That should be good news to Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav (Discovery co-owns OWN with Oprah) who expected the Oprah Winfrey Network to break even in 2013.

Other series that propelled OWN’s February ratings include the comedy series “Love Thy Neighbor” from the house of Perry, which was Wednesday night’s No. 1 original cable series for African-American women 25-54 and total viewers. The second season of reality series “Raising Whitley,” which follows actress/comedienne Kym Whitley, and the new reality show “Mom’s Got Game,” which follows former WNBA player Pamela McGee and her son, Denver Nuggets center JaVale McGee, are Saturday night’s top two original series on all of television for African-American women in the key 25-54 demo.

“Deion’s Family Playbook” premieres Saturday on OWN. The show features former NFL football and baseball star Deion “Prime Time” Sanders as he balances life as a single dad. With the help of his mother and girlfriend Tracey Edmonds he’s raising his five kids plus five more children that he’s opened his home to. Outside the home, he co-founded and is football coach of Prime Prep Academy, a charter school in Dallas that aims to make a lasting impact on the lives of children in underserved areas.