- Our America with Lisa Ling
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Our America with Lisa Ling 
Title cardGenre Documentary Presented by Lisa Ling Country of origin United States Language(s) English No. of seasons 2 No. of episodes 15 Production Running time 45 min. Broadcast Original channel OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network Original run February 15, 2011 – present External links Website Our America with Lisa Ling is an American documentary television series. Each episode examines an aspect of American society that may be viewed as marginal or outside the mainstream.[1] The series, hosted by journalist Lisa Ling, premiered on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network on February 15, 2011.
OWN announced the renewal of Our America for a second season of seven episodes, following the airing of the series' second episode.[2]
On November 17, 2011, it was announced that the second season would be extended by 8 episodes to a total of 16 episodes. Additional episodes of season two will include subject matters ranging from pageant kids, the life of swingers, the plight of Native Americans, and the wrongfully accused. These episodes are currently in production and are scheduled to air next spring. [3]
Contents
Critical and Popular Response
Hank Stuever of The Washington Post praised the series, calling it "an intelligent, ruminative affirmation on the ways life might resemble a daytime talk show". Ling is called empathetic and sensitive and the series a throwback to "the quality TV magazine journalism that predated the infotainment glut". However he finds that while Ling is emotionally affected by the stories she finds she seems "none the wiser" for having found them.[1]
The debut episode of Our America drew an average of 574,000 viewers. This was an improvement over the average viewership that the network attracted during its first week on the air and an improvement of 242% over its predecessor, Discovery Health Channel, from a year earlier.[4]
In its second season, Our America continued with strong ratings, ranking #17 in its time period among 95 ad-supported cable networks. The show posted triple digit growth for the month of October across the key demos versus year ago numbers (+189% W25-54, +108% HH, +126% P2+, compared with Discovery Health's ratings in October 2010).[5]
Episodes
Season One
№ Ep. Title Original Airdate Description Viewers 1 1.1 Faith Healers February 15, 2011 Ling visits a faith healing revival run by controversial evangelist Todd Bentley. 574,000[4] 2 1.2 Transgender Lives February 22, 2011 Five transgender people in various stages of transition are profiled. 733,000[6] 3 1.3 State of Sex Offenders March 1, 2011 4 1.4 Pray the Gay Away? March 8, 2011 Ling examines whether it is possible to be both gay and Christian. Following the episode OWN broadcast a live one-hour special, "Pray the Gay Away? The Conversation Continues..." with Ling and Gayle King. 5 1.5 Online Brides March 15, 2011 A Texas man travels to Colombia to meet women who advertise for husbands at a marriage website. 6 1.6 Heroin in the Heartland March 22, 2011 Lisa discusses the time she spent in a central Ohio town ravaged by heroin, and the connections that she made with the people along the way. 7 1.7 A Closer Look March 29, 2011 Updates on the people and situations shown in previous episodes. Season Two
№ Ep. Title Original Airdate Description Viewers 8 2.1 Amateur Porn October 16, 2011 Lisa Ling begins Season 2 by exploring homemade sex films on the Internet, and how the widespread availability of online pornography has affected Americans' sex lives and relationships. 347,000 [7] 9 2.2 Modern Polygamy October 23, 2011 A report on plural marriage in the U.S. focuses on the polygamous community in Centennial Park, Ariz. 520,000 [8] 10 2.3 3 AM Girls October 30, 2011 Lisa explores sex trafficking in Washington, DC. 542,000 [9] 11 2.4 Invisible Wounds of War November 6, 2011 Exploring problems facing U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Host Lisa Ling visits a suicide hotline for veterans in New York City and a veterans' retreat in New Mexico. 12 2.5 Twin Lives November 13, 2011 Human individuality is explored in a report on identical twins 13 2.6 Incarceration Generation November 20, 2011 Exploring the rate at which black men are incarcerated, and ways to reduce it. Included: case studies. 14 2.7 Extreme Parenting November 27, 2011 Lisa Ling explores such parenting styles as "unschooling" (self-directed learning) for children and the "tiger mom" phenomenon. She also follows moms who enter their young daughters in child beauty pageants. 15 2.8 The Stories Continue... December 4, 2011 Revisiting people and places from Season 2. 16 2.9 2.9 Spring 2012 17 2.10 2.10 Spring 2012 18 2.11 2.11 Spring 2012 19 2.12 2.12 Spring 2012 20 2.13 2.13 Spring 2012 21 2.14 2.14 Spring 2012 22 2.15 2.15 Spring 2012 23 2.16 2.16 Spring 2012 References
- ^ a b OWN TV's 'Our America with Lisa Ling': A road trip to the social margins
- ^ OWN Renews 'Our America With Lisa Ling'
- ^ 'OWN Announces Pickups of Popular Series "Our America with Lisa Ling" and "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's"' Zap2it November 17, 2011
- ^ a b Lisa Ling's new documentary series premieres to strong ratings on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network
- ^ 'OWN Fall Season Up Double Digits in Primetime for Month of October vs. Last Year' Zap2it November 1, 2011
- ^ Oprah’s New Channel Struggles to Pull in the Viewers
- ^ Logan and Salata are in it for long haul
- ^ Logan and Salata are in it for long haul
- ^ OWN Fall Season Up Double Digits in Primetime for Month of October vs. Last Year
External links
OWN Network programming Current Enough Already! with Peter Walsh (since 2011) · Oprah Presents Master Class (since 2011) · Our America with Lisa Ling (since 2011) · Why Not? with Shania Twain (since 2011) · Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star (since 2011) · The Rosie Show (since 2011)- ABC (current)
- AMC
- CBS (current)
- CW
- E!
- Fox
- FX
- HBO
- OWN
- NBC (current)
- Showtime
- Starz
- TBS
- TNT
- USA
Categories:- OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network original programs
- 2011 American television series debuts
- Documentary television series
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