OWN Starts Well; Football’s Still First on NBC

Not quite living up to Oprah Winfrey's "live your best life now" mantra, her OWN network nonetheless got off to a respectable start, debuting New Year's Day to an average prime-time audience of 1.16 million viewers.

It was the No. 3 cable network among women aged 25 to 54 at 8 and 9 p.m., a two-hour block of Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes. OWN only trailed ESPN and USA, according to early Nielsen figures Monday. The daytime queen's eponymous network far surpassed the numbers of the cable outlet it's replacing, Discovery Health.

Oprah launches OWN: What do you think so far?

On network television Sunday night, the last NFL regular season game may have involved two losing teams, but it still got the most viewers. The tilt between the St. Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks led NBC to its usual Sunday night victory, averaging 14.3 million viewers.

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At 8, an original episode of CBS' CSI: Miamilured 11.7 million viewers, besting ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (9.3 million) and reruns of Fox's The Simpsons (6.2 million) and The Cleveland Show (5 million).

ABC'sDesperate Housewives (12.1 million) took the 9 o'clock timeslot versus CBS' Undercover Boss (12 million viewers) and back-to-back reruns of Family Guy (5.7 million).

At 10, a rerun of CSI: Miami (8.6 million) outdrew Brothers & Sisters (8 million).