January 15 brought with it the season 1 premiere of ‘Belle Collective’ – the newest expansion to OWN’s Friday night unscripted programming lineup.

Centered on the personal and professional lives of five of Jackson, Mississippi’s most successful African American businesswomen – Tambra Cherie, Marie Hamilton-Abston, Latrice Rogers, Lateshia Pearson, & Dr. Antoinette Liles  – the series was served as the latest OWN franchise from the producers behind the network’s other Southern-based reality hit, ‘Love & Marriage: Huntsville.’

The venture was undoubtedly touted highly, but thanks to top-rated programming from the NBA, ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ and more, Friday night competition may have proven itself a bit steeper than expected for the newcomer.

See what we mean inside:

Viewership = 262,000 

Due to ratings domination from news and sports programming on January 15, ‘Belle’ rang in at #98 among the day’s 150 most-watched on cable.  Among unscripted programs only, however, it ranked at a more promising #18.

For its 10 pm viewership hour, the show may have slid into 5th place among the day’s reality programming (#11 overall) but it entered ratings charts at #1 among new unscripted series for cable.

While those numbers pale in comparison to the season 1 launches of the network’s overall leading scripted series (i.e. ‘Tyler Perry’s The Haves & Have Nots,’ ‘Greenleaf,’ and ‘Queen Sugar’), it’s in line with the inaugural viewership figures of the other brainchild of Kingdom Reign Entertainment productions – ‘Love & Marriage: Huntsville’ (which premiered with 292,000 views on January 12, 2019).

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