Rosie O'Donnell Beats Oprah Winfrey on Her Own Network

On the tails of a $15 million media blitz to hype OWNs new fall lineup, Oprah Winfreys network premiered two new offerings Monday night: Rosie ODonnells talk show, The Rosie Show, followed by Winfreys self-help series, Oprahs Lifeclass. Despite this being the Oprah Winfrey Network, it was ODonnells shownot Winfreysthat reeled in the most viewers.

At 8 p.m. on Monday, according to Reuters, 497,000 viewers tuned into see The Rosie Show with guest Russell Brand. But many of them picked up the remote at 9 p.m., leaving Oprahs Lifeclassa mix of older footage from The Oprah Winfrey Show and new introductionswith just 330,000 viewers.

Both shows also aired on five other Discovery-owned networks, including TLC, Planet Green, Investigation Discovery, and Discovery Fit + Health, giving The Rosie Show a combined audience of 1.5 million people, and Oprahs Lifeclass an audience of 1.2 million.

OWN president Erik Logan said that the new season was off to an encouraging start, with audiences for each show up 200 percent from the networks predecessor, Discovery Health, one year ago. But Mondays ratings were paltry compared with the numbers that Winfrey and ODonnell network TV daytime shows brought in. Before The Oprah Winfrey Show ended its 25-year run last May, it had a regular audience of about 6.4 million viewers in the U.S.