After months of doom and gloom reports about disappointing ratings and the lackluster performance of the Oprah Winfrey Network, there are hopeful signs of new life.

Discovery CEO David Zaslav said today that there has been an improvement in the overall performance at OWN. According to him, there has been a 20% ratings growth in the second quarter among the network's core audience of women between the ages of 25-54. 

Zaslav made it a point about the improving numbers, and added that "canidily we're significantly ahead of where we thought we would be."

He further said that the network "spilled less red ink in the second quarter" than it did in the previous one. Though a lot of the savings this quarter was due to the cancellation of the Rosie O'Donnell talk show.

However, he added that more money would be spent in the future on marketing and programming, and that they expect OWN to actually turn a profit in late 2013.