By James Nye PUBLISHED: 16:12 EST, 18 January 2013 | UPDATED: 19:34 EST, 18 January 2013 The first part of Lance Armstrong's doping confession to Oprah Winfrey drew about 4.3 million viewers to Winfrey's struggling television network on Thursday night, according to Nielsen ratings. The number - roughly the same as Good Morning America's daily audience - is good news for OWN, Winfrey's network, but it hardly compares to big interviews from her days of yore, such as the 1993 Michael Jackson that attracted 62 million viewers to ABC. During her peak in the early 90s, 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' drew an average 13 million viewers, according to the New York Times.
@highlight
The interview is generating a wave of publicity for OWN, the network Winfrey launched in 2011 to poor ratings
@highlight
But only 3.17 million people tuned in for the first airing of the interview at 9 p.m. Thursday. Another 1.12 million tuned in for the repeat at 10:30 p.m.
@highlight
Previously, Winfrey's interview with Bobby Kristina, the daughter of Whitney Houston, held the two-year-old network's record for drawing the highest number of viewers at 3.5 million
@highlight
OWN only averaged 147,000 viewers aged 25 to 54 during primetime in 2012
@placeholder planned to air one episode with Armstrong but expanded the program to two nights after the cyclist talked with Winfrey for more than two hours.
Her March 2012 talk with @placeholder's daughter shortly after the singer's sudden death drew 3.5 million viewers.