The hottest show on television these days just might be OWN soap “The Haves and the Have Nots,” which surged to record highs on Tuesday and was the night’s most popular cable program.
The fifth episode of the Tyler Perry drama’s sophomore season averaged 3.35 million viewers in the 9 o’clock hour, according to Nielsen, up a big 21% week to week and double the audience of the show’s series opener last May (1.77 million). It also grew vs. last week by 15% in adults 18-49 rating (1.13 from 0.98), and by 16% in women 25-54 (1.87 from 1.61), its strongest demo.
“Haves and the Have Nots, ” a sudsy drama about the powerful Cryer family and the hired help who work in their Savannah, Ga., mansion, beat out all cable programs on Tuesday in total viewers — besting the likes of Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” (3.08 million) and Discovery reality show “Moonshiners” (3.03 million).
In adults 18-49, its 1.13 rating put it just slightly behind “Moonshiners” (1.15) as the No. 1 cable original in its time period. It also finished ahead of ABC’s 9:30 p.m. comedy “Trophy Wife” (0.9 rating).
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Among all OWN programming since its January 2011 debut, only a March 2012 “Oprah’s Next Chapter” interview with Bobbi Kristina has drawn more viewers (3.5 million) than Tuesday’s episode of “The Haves and the Have Nots.”