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THE REAL COUNTDOWN IS JUST BEGINNING — AT OWN
While slowly winding down the year-long goodbye as America’s queen of the afternoon, Oprah Winfrey is a now moving at warp speed to get her next house in order. After a disappointing launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network, she’s finally said out loud what a few of us were brave to say from the beginning: it’s just not good enough.
I remember writing my first blog about OWN last January 7th. It began:
“When Oprah Winfrey first announced the creation of OWN, she revealed she had once written in her journal “that one day I would create a television network, as I always felt my show was just the beginning of what the future could hold.”
Well, three years and $168 million later, we have now seen the future, and it is — extremely disappointing.”
I couldn’t understand how this happened, given the OWN brain trust, with not just Oprah Winfrey but now the amazing Tom Freston who, despite other claims of paternity, actually is the real father of MTV.
After waiting, then hoping, then watching, I pronounced OWN “a stodgy old bore.”
INTERVIEW IS TOUGHEST, BUT FOR WHOM?
WHEW, WHO ELSE BUT THE QUEEN OF TALK COULD EVER HANDLE QUESTIONS LIKE THESE…
It began at 9:00 p.m. just like this: after days of intensive CNN promotion where we see Oprah call it “one of the toughest interviews I’ve had in twenty years,” Piers Morgan opened the door, sat down and asked the first question on his highly anticipated new talk show. I turned up the volume, shushed my husband and leaned forward.
"one of the toughest interviews Ive had in twenty years"
PIERS: Tell me this, do you ever get surreal moments when, I’m trying to picture what it’s like being you, when you wake up in the morning and you go, ‘Bloody hell, I’m Oprah Winfrey.’
OPRAH: Well I don’t say, “bloody hell,” but I did have a surreal moment, January 1st, when I launched my new network.
It had been only a matter of seconds before Oprah was pitching her heart out about her new cable network, OWN. Watching the January 1st launch, she told Morgan, had moved her to tears when she finally “got it.” Groomed in the rough and tumble world of London’s Fleet Street, he was more than ready for his follow up.
PIERS: What does it really mean to have your own network?
With the words, “exclusive” written in the lower third of the screen*, Oprah revealed a story she had only shared with the few dozen reporters who attended her press conference at the Television Critics Association on January 7th. She said she never loved commercials as much as when she saw them on her OWN network. (*Full disclosure, I have over-used “exclusive” myself plenty over the years.)
Okay, to be fair, Morgan wants Oprah to get a little something out of the interview, so perhaps it’s good to get a few warm up questions out of the way. Let’s dig in now.
PIERS: How many people do you trust?
Oprah says about 5 or 6, but she’s not going to say who they are. Oprah’s on to him now and lets him know she’s not going to discuss what she told Barbara Walters about Gayle.
PIERS: Typical Oprah, you nailed the lie!
Oprah makes it very clear that she will never address those “rumors” again. And Morgan backs off, but not before Oprah explains why she cried in the Walters interview while discussing her friendship with Gayle.
Having been warned by Oprah not to tread on “rumor” territory, or to expect her to cry again, Morgan deftly backs her in a corner with this follow up:
PIERS: How did Gayle react to your reaction?
OPRAH: She said, ‘that’s so nice.’
It turns out, Gayle didn’t have a chance to see the Barbara Walters interview until they were in Australia, something which made Morgan absolutely collapse in laughter. But then he composed himself in order to continue Oprah’s toughest interview. Read the rest of this entry »
WHY OPRAH’S OWN SEES RATINGS DIVE IN WEEK #2
Oprah: "she sure can talk"
When Oprah Winfrey first announced the creation of OWN, she revealed she had once written in her journal “that one day I would create a television network, as I always felt my show was just the beginning of what the future could hold.”
Well, three years and $168 million later, we have now seen the future, and it is — extremely disappointing. Not just in the number of viewers who pulled the escape hatch after the first few days, but why they are bailing.
OWN promises to recycle 5,000 hour of the Oprah Winfrey Show starting this September.
Who wants to watch more recycling than you’ll find at a plastic bottle processing center.
I’m not certain how this has happened given the OWN brain trust with Oprah as chairman, the amazing Tom Freston as top advisor, and the awesome Christina Norman, the CEO. The bottom line: OWN is a stodgy old bore.
Even worse, while they were forgetting Oprah’s own recipe for success, a quiet little Columbus Dispatch newspaper reporter went instantly viral with his story of Ted Williams, the homeless man with the golden voice.
Talk about dream fulfillment. Today Oprah told Entertainment Tonight she was thinking of ways to fold Ted Williams into OWN. Really? Doesn’t he have enough benefactors on his bandwagon. Instead, why not hire that unsung Columbus Dispatch reporter and give him a show to find the other jewels of humanity who are still living on the street or in makeshift tents?
Thursday, Oprah met with members of the TV Critics Association where some suggested she had actually staged a filibuster to avoid addressing real issues of OWN. Here are some of the questions tv critics didn’t have an opportunity to ask: Read the rest of this entry »
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