Just last month, Oprah Winfrey was chastised for trying to corral Grammy viewers over to The Oprah Winfrey Network, but on March 11, some 3.5 million viewers found their own way to the media mogul’s one-year-old channel, breaking the viewership record to date.

An Oprah’s Next Chapter episode featuring Winfrey interviewing the late Whitney Houston’s family members — daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, and brother and sister-in-law Gary and Patricia Houston — was responsible for the surge in viewers. According to Variety, “The prior largest audience for any OWN telecast was the 1.6 million who tuned in to Oprah's Next Chapter on Jan. 8 for an episode featuring pastor Joel Osteen. The network averaged just 295,000 viewers in primetime for the week of Feb. 27-March 4.”

Next Sunday (March 18) the OWN record-breaking show will feature Oprah interviewing Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta. 

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(Photo: Harpo, Inc./AP Photo)