Lindsay Lohan‘s new reality series for OWN, “Lindsay,” premiered to 693,184 viewers on Sunday. It registered a .56 with its key demograhic Women 25-54 rating and .52 Women 18-49 rating.
“We feel really good about [the ratings],” OWN president Erik Logan told TheWrap. “Part of what excited us about this project is that we had the opportunity to diversify the network and expand the brand.”
The cable network’s exec touts the show’s gains in the 10 p.m. Sunday hour over last year in total viewers and several demos: Up 57 percent in total viewers; up 37 percent with key demo W25-54 and up 73 percent in the younger-skewing W18-49.
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Although the numbers seem on the low side for the original series, Logan said that the network intended for the show to open the network to new and younger female viewers.
“We feel really good about the goal that we had set out,” Logan said, “which was one, to tell a good story; two, demonstrate the flexibility of our brand under Oprah [Winfrey]; and three, continue to attract new audiences to the network.”
For the younger demo of Women 18-34, “Lindsay” ratings actually ranked third after comparable reality series “Iyanla: Fix My Life” with a .89 and “Life with La Toya” with a .58. “Lindsay” saw an increase in the younger demo in the hour of 241 percent year-over-year.
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OWN doesn’t sell ads against Women 18-34, though, like it does for W25-54 and W18-49.
In August 2012, Lohan’s appearance on interview series, “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” earned 892,000 total viewers and a .66 W25-54 rating.
As different show formats and without the presence of Winfrey, Logan said those numbers aren’t comparable.
“It’s really, really hard to compare the two, because Oprah is hosting the show and this is a docu-series around Lindsay Lohan,” Logan said. “Also, that show has a track record of over two years of an audience, this is a premiere of a series that doesn’t have Oprah in it. So, it’s apples and oranges.”