The season's most-hyped talk show launch came out of the gate strong on Monday. The Queen Latifah Show delivered a 1.7 rating among households, making it the biggest debut of the season thus far.
It's also one of the best daytime premieres in four years. The Queen might have been down significantly from Katie Couric's massive debut last season, but she trails only Katie as the top talker entry since Dr. Oz in 2009.
THR COVER: Inside Queen Latifah's New Talk Show
The syndicated effort from Sony TV was up four-tenths of a point (31 percent) from the September 2012 average -- and improved from its lead-in by 21 percent.
Women were also a boon to the broadcast. Compared to the same time period last year, Latifah was up 80 percent in the targeted women 25-54 demographic with a 0.9 rating.
The show performed particularly well on CBS owned and affiliated stations big markets New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Dallas. And including secondary telecasts in several of them, the premiere delivered a 2.0 cumulative rating among households.
