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. The series, hosted by journalist Lisa Ling

Lisa Ling

Lisa J. Ling is a Chinese American journalist, best known for her role as a co-host of ABC's The View , host of National Geographic Explorer, reporter on Channel One News, and special correspondent for the Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. She is the older sister of journalist Laura Ling.-Early...

, 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.

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.

Critical and Popular Response

Hank Stuever of The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

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.

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

Discovery Health Channel

Discovery Health Channel is a website owned by Discovery Communications, created for people interested in health and wellness. Until December 31, 2010, it was a U.S. cable television specialty channel dedicated to television programming that highlights various aspects of health and wellness...

, from a year earlier.

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).

Season One (2011)

№	Ep.	Title	Original Airdate	Description	Viewers
1	1.1	Faith Healers	February 15, 2011	Ling visits a faith healing Faith healing Faith healing is healing through spiritual means. The healing of a person is brought about by religious faith through prayer and/or rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or...  revival run by controversial evangelist Todd Bentley Todd Bentley Todd Bentley is a Canadian Christian evangelist. He was the key figure of the Lakeland Revival. After a brief period of retirement connected with the breakdown of his marriage and subsequent re-marriage, he has returned to ministry.... .	574,000
2	1.2	Transgender Lives	February 22, 2011	Five transgender Transgender Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....  people in various stages of transition are profiled.	733,000
3	1.3	State of Sex Offenders	March 1, 2011
4	1.4	Pray the Gay Away? Pray the Gay Away? "Pray the Gay Away?" is a 2011 episode of the American television series Our America with Lisa Ling. The episode, hosted by Ling, profiles several people as they seek to reconcile their homosexuality with their Christianity...	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 Gayle King Gayle King is editor-at-large for O, The Oprah Magazine and the best friend of Oprah Winfrey. She has previously worked as a television news anchor and talk show host... .
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 (2011-2012)

№	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
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
10	2.3	3 AM Girls	October 30, 2011	Lisa explores sex trafficking in Washington, DC.	542,000
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

External links

• Official site