By: Amanda Anderson-Niles
As most of you already know, owning her very own network hasn’t been an easy process for Oprah Winfrey. And of course, that wasn’t an easy pill for her to swallow considering she’s pretty much reigned in any other project she’s taken on in her very long and successful career. So it was only a matter of time that the Journalism legend would develop a plan to save her network and get viewership up. Now that she has a couple of hit shows in “Iyanla: Fix My Life” and La Toya Jackson’s reality show, calling Tyler Perry was obviously the slam dunk she needed. Tyler has decided to create two shows for his BFF Oprah (The Have and the Have Nots and Love Thy Neighbor), and just after the series premiere of “The Have and the Have Nots,” the numbers reveal the show’s first run has set a record on the network. The Washington Post reports:
One-hour drama “The Have and the Have Nots,” which debuted on Tuesday night at 9 p.m., scored 1.77 million viewers, making it the highest-rated series premiere in the channel’s history. About 1.8 million tuned in for the second episode at 10 p.m.
Perry, who made a multi-year contract last year to create scripted shows exclusively for OWN — a co-venture between Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications — also signed on to executive produce, direct and write the series.
“The Have and the Have Nots” is a drama about the complicated dynamic between a wealthy Georgia family and their hired help who work in their mansion. Perry’s second series for OWN, which debuts on Wednesday night, is a sitcom following the wacky hijinx at a family-owned-and-operated diner.
Congrats to Tyler Perry and Oprah on their huge win.
I heard it was pretty good. I’m still skeptical, but I might give it a shot anyway.
Good job. I missed it and I planned to watch it. Got caught up doing God Knows what!
When did this come on? I’m going to have to catch an episode to see if I like it.
Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT
It’s not bad either. I plan to watch again. Very scandalous too. LOL.
Thanks hunni!!!!! I’m going to try to watch the first episode.
I’m happy for Oprah.
My Mom loves this show. If my mom likes it, it’s definitely worth a watch. She’s so hard to please. LOL. I’m going to catch the rerun when I can on my computer before it comes back on tonight.
I was very entertained. And y’all know I’m not a TP fan!
It was pretty decent. I’m happy for them. Glad to see Tyler stepping outside the box.
You don’t say. Can’t even hate on that. I might watch if you guys are saying it’s good.
It’s good. I was pleasantly surprised I liked it. BTW, it’s also some great web series to watch too with talented black actors/actresses. I just became addicted to the RoomieLoverFriends series. And Awkward Black Girl is great too. Sorry for the plug. LOL.
Oh girl no, I love both of those shows! YouTube is like crack. I need to buy something that will play YouTube stuff on my TV. That’s how many shows I watch on there now.
So it is good huh? I’ll give it a chance. Tell yall how I feel about I watch it.
*when* I cannot type on this damn phone with these nails.
Both shows were good…..i really enjoyed Love thy neighbor….CONGRATS TO OPRAH & TYLER
So is Tyler Perry giving his writers a raise yet?
I’m really happy for Oprah. She turned failure into success. Love it.
First Kim K and now Tyler Perry. This screams desperation.
I enjoyed the premiere. Tyler’s storytelling is improving.
God Bless them both! It makes me happy when african americans help eacother and work together. 🙂