‘Queen Sugar’ Debut Ratings Hit OWN High With 2-Night Premiere
Based on its two-night debut night numbers, Queen Sugar is looking pretty sweet for OWN. While the September 6 opener came in as the second-best premiere for the 5-year old network, last night’s second episode of the Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey series hit the best Night 2 OWN has ever had with 2.14 million viewers.
Following the same pattern as June’s Greenleaf debut, the Tuesday-and-Wednesday rollout of Queen Sugar drew an average of 2.42 million viewers and a 1.9 rating among the net’s core demo of women 25-54. That’s up 2% in the key demo from what the previous high of the mega-church drama snared on June 21 and 22 this year.
Night-to-night, the DuVernay-directed September 6 debut episode of Queen Sugar, titled “First Things First,” came in second to Greenleaf, which stars Merle Dandridge, Keith David, Lynn Whitfield and Winfrey. Following OWN’s The Haves and the Have Nots, which drew a cable drama-topping 3.24 million viewers Tuesday, the 10 PM Queen Sugar drew 2.69 million viewers for its debut episode. In what’s ultimately a plethora of riches for OWN with its new drama slate, Tuesday’s ad-free QS opener was down 11% in total eyeballs from what Greenleaf got on June 21 in the same slot. With a 2.07 in OWN’s key demo,the Queen Sugar debut was fairly steady with the Greenleaf opener with a 5% dip.
However, last night’s 10 PM Queen Sugar was up 11% from the 9 PM June 22 episode of Greenleaf in total viewers and rose 8% in the women 25-54 demo.
While opening on a Tuesday, both Greenleaf and Queen Sugar are regularly slotted on Wednesdays at 10 PM. The already-renewed former series wrapped up its first season on August 31, while the also-renewed Queen Sugar has a 13-episode Season 1. The series is based on based on Natalie Baszile’s 2014 novel.
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