OWN’s ‘Queen Sugar’ Opens to Season Premiere Low

Over a year after waving farewell to viewers via its season 4 finale, OWN was hoping TV viewers would be more than ready to pucker up for some sugar the week of Valentine’s Day 2021.

With its season 5 launch date set for February 16, the ‘Queen Sugar’ return went to ratings war with well-established TV favorites as well as highly anticipated newcomers ‘Kenan’ and ‘Young Rock.’

Although critical acclaim accompanied the return of the OWN flagship series, the combined powers of the competition (as well as power outages across the nation due to inclement wintry weather) proved too much for ‘Queen’ – ultimately discrowning the one-time ratings royal from its throne atop viewership tallies.

Details inside:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMcaW7anZUA

Viewership = 753,000

Despite cable TV ratings domination from the likes of sports and news programming, the ‘Queen Sugar’ season 5 premiere ranked #28 on the list of 150 highest-rated cable shows that aired Tuesday.

Raking in approximately 753,000 viewers, the Ava Duvernay-produced series was the #2 most-watched scripted series of the night (falling second only to BET’s ‘Tyler Perry’s The Oval’).

Although a contextual win for the day, the 753,000 who tuned in February 16 was a far cry from numbers historically associated with the ‘Queen’ season premieres.

Look below to see how it ranked compared to its predecessors.

‘Queen Sugar’ Season Premiere Viewership

Season 1 (2016): 2.69 million

Season 2 (2017): 2.31 million

Season 3 (2018): 1.48 million

Season 4 (2019): 1.02 million

Season 5 (2021): 753,000

[ratings source: SBD]