Was Oprah Winfrey's 1.1 Million Viewers Enough to Save Her OWN Channel?

The transformation of Discovery Health into the Oprah Winfrey Network has not turned into the channel Discovery Communications DISCA or Oprah Winfrey had hoped for. In January of 2011, Discovery Communications launched the new OWN channel, named after media legend Oprah Winfrey, in hopes of dominance among women viewers. The channel is 50% owned by Oprah's Harpo Productions and 50% owned by publicly traded Discovery Communications. Since the channel's debut in January, it has been a huge disappointment in terms of content for viewers. That may have all changed Sunday night with Oprah's own “Oprah's Next Chapter” television show. The weekly broadcast of “Oprah's Next Chapter” is a huge step for Discovery Communications. The company selected the name OWN and put up most of the money to fund the channel based on Oprah Winfrey's dominance with the women demographic and the marketability she has on television. On Sunday, over 1.1 million viewers turned in to see the premiere of the new one hour show. The show is the second highest viewed show ever on the channel (“Oprah Behind the Scenes – 1.2 million). The “Oprah Winfrey Show”, when in syndication drew over 14 million viewers and episode. The first episode of “Oprah's Next Chapter” was two hours and featured Steven Tyler as the guest. Winfrey conducted interviews with the Aerosmith lead singer and also got to tour his summer retreat in New Hampshire. The next episode will feature Joel Osteen, who is a pastor and bestselling author. Since taking over for Discovery Health, the Oprah Winfrey Network has lost ten percent of viewers over the last year. The Oprah Winfrey Network has gone through several executive changes and actually began without Oprah Winfrey as Chief Executive Officer. The media mogul now serves as the head of the television channel whose creation she had a hand in. October 10th, 2011 saw the premiere of Rosie O' Donnell's “The Rosie Show” on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The debut show, which aired on a Wednesday, had 500,000 viewers. The numbers immediately fell over the next two days to 300,000 and 200,000 respectively. For the month of October an average of 258,000 viewers tuned in to the show. Last check in December 244,000 viewers turn in every night to watch the show, which was an increase on the number of 171,000 reported for November. Along with the Oprah Winfrey Network, Discovery Communications also owns the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Military Channel, Planet Green, and Science Channel. The publicly traded company has had success with TLC expanding its international presence in 2011. The channel had a goal of being in over 100 million homes around the world and TLC reached that goal in March. Strong growth is also coming from The Hub, a television channel aimed at children in the age range of two to eleven. The channel, which debuted in 2010, is a joint venture similar to OWN between Discovery Communications and Hasbro HAS. Television programs include GI Joe and Transformers. During 2011 shares of Discovery Communication ended with a loss of two percent. Many investors were bullish about the company from the launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network. With Oprah back in control and a new television show airing weekly, shareholders could be in for a nice 2012 return