Oprah Winfrey‘s OWN celebrated yet another touchdown with ‘The Have and Have Nots’ – the long awaited debut of its creative union with filmmaker Tyler Perry.
The scripted drama, acting as the network’s first, found favorable viewership during its two episode premiere Tuesday night reports say.
“The 9 p.m. airing delivered 1.77 million viewers (1.57 million of them women age 25-54). The second episode at 10 p.m. grew to 1.8 million viewers (1.67 million were women 25-54).”
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Viewers may have been singing the show’s praises, but critics were singing a much different tune.
“Brian Lowry of Variety called the show “claustrophobically cheap, not to mention poorly written and indifferently acted.” He added that the show could potentially damage Winfrey’s legacy of uplift and self-empowerment.
Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times was even more scathing, calling the show ‘so awful that the awfulness appears intentional. Except that might make it interesting, and it just isn’t.'”
