Lisa Ling’s new documentary series premieres to strong ratings on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

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Lisa Ling says that the folks at OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network care less about ratings than content. Maybe that’s so, but the numbers for Tuesday’s premiere of Ling’s new documentary series, ‘Our America,’ show how a recognizable name can still rope in viewers.

‘Our America,’ which examines hot-button topics such as online bride services and sex offenses, averaged 574,000 total viewers durings its 10 p.m. time slot, according to the Nielsen Co. That’s a modest total by broadcast standards, of course, but not bad at all for a cable network that’s just 6 weeks old.

Ling, who developed a following years ago on ‘The View’ and has more recently served as a field correspondent on Winfrey’s syndicated show, delivered a better number than OWN did in prime time during its heavily promoted launch week last month (505,000 average). ‘Our America’ also improved by 242% what Discovery Health — OWN’s predecessor on cable systems — was doing a year ago.

The show was preceded at 9 p.m. by another premiere, a seven-episode documentary series about women in prison, ‘Breaking Down the Bars,’ which drew just 366,000 viewers.

Show Trackers, did you catch ‘Our America’? If so, what did you think?

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— Scott Collins