Viewers Get All Emotional Over ‘Queen Sugar’ Premiere (and Oprah)

Tuesday night (Sept. 6)marked the series premiere of the highly anticipated drama Queen Sugar, executive produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, which aired on OWN. Canvs, the language analytics company, took a look at the Emotional Reactions (ERs) viewers expressed on Twitter, analyzing all tweets about the show captured by Nielsen, surrounding the program.

The series opener accountedfor 67.8% of ERs on OWN Tuesday and prompted 23,947 ERs in total during the night, with fans expressing love 43.7% of the time. The other main ERs were “good” (13.9%), “beautiful” (12.3%), “excited” (10.7%), “crazy” (5.3%) and “cried” (2.8%). Those reactions bode well for the show and for OWN, which renewed Queen Sugar for a second season more than a month before the premiere.

Throughout the show, fans even expressed their love for Oprah, who was specifically tagged in 16.6% of ERs and praised the commercial-free kick-off.

@Oprah You're the best! Love you. ♡

— Sheree Pitchford (@svpesq_sheree) September 7, 2016

The closing moments of the show saw the biggest spike in engagement, with more than 348 ERs pouring in per minute. A tragic loss in the family at the core of the drama sparked a spike in “cried” and “crazy” reactions, accounting for more than 22% of ERs during the final five minutes.

OMG. I'm about to cry. Lawd. #GimmeSugar#QueenSugar

— Candace (@CandaceDidIt) September 7, 2016

Omg I can't there're tears in my eyes #queensugar

— Dr3w (@Spydah86) September 7, 2016

With the two-night premiere set to continue Wednesday, it looks like all it took was the first hour to get viewers hooked.