Can Oprah and Rosie OWN it Again?

Two larger-than-life women, Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O’Donnell... one network, OWN, reaching 80 million homes... and a divided jury on the prospects for success.

“Oprah's second act appears to be confirming the old adage that there are no second acts in American life,” wrote businessinsider.com

Winfrey's newest show for the network, "Oprah's Lifeclass," which the former queen of talk has been heavily promoting, drew just 330,000 people on its first night, while the debut of "The Rosie Show" with solo guest Russell Brand drew 497,000 viewers.

Both series aired across five cable channels operated by OWN's partner, Discovery Communications Inc. (TLC, Investigation Discovery, Discovery Fit & Health and Planet Green), and reached a combined audience of 1.2 million and 1.5 million, respectively.

"Oprah’s Lifeclass," a rewrap of clips and lessons from 25 years of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" which regularly drew audiences of 6.4 million viewers before ending in May, debuted with fewer viewers than Erin Burnett's CNN show drew on her first night.

The live webcast had 250,000 plus streams on Oprah.com and through Winfrey and OWN’s Facebook pages.

Rosie’s return to television talk received lukewarm reviews as well as ratings: Variety called it "curiously flat and understated,” while the Los Angeles Times less-than-enthusiastically termed it a "not-bad, pretty good, kinda funny, sort of smart debut."

But The Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman wrote, "I don’t think Rosie stumbled at all in this first show. I think she was herself. I think the looseness is an asset. And if anyone tinkers with that, they’ll be making a huge mistake."

OWN president Erik Logan said, “The new fall season on OWN is off to an encouraging start. This is the next right step as we continue to build the network.”

The court of public opinion will decide if "build it and they will come" will work this time around. Comments welcome.