To the surprise of no one at all, Oprah Winfrey isn’t leaving television when her daily talk show ends next year.
Instead, she’ll be redirecting her efforts 100% towards her new cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network, where she’ll produce and appear on a number of original shows. She’ll be hosting her own new OWN show, entitled Oprah’s Next Chapter, which finds her traveling around the world to faraway places like Egypt and China to have “more riveting conversations with the people we all want to hear from.” Next Chapter is expected to be an hour-long show, airing 2 or 3 times a week in prime time.
Oprah will also be a part of Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star, where she’ll serve as a judge on an American Idol-type search for the next great talk show host.
The rest of OWN’s roster is made up of shows seemingly tailored around Oprah’s personal friends and the top names on her rolodex, such as Gail King, Lisa Ling, Shania Twain, and more.
Anybody else remember that interview she did with Jay Leno after all the Leno/Conan hubbub, where he was certain she would keep doing a show of some kind, even after The Oprah Winfrey Show ends, and she swore up and down that she wasn’t doing another talk show? I’m not a big Leno fan, but it looks like he was spot-on about Oprah.
Oprah isn’t set to say goodbye till September of next year but everyone’s already wondering who will inherit her throne in daytime TV. Maybe Geraldo’s time has finally come (*snort*)!
Seriously though, Scott Collins of LA Times says that the most likely contenders for the slot will be “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “The Dr. Oz Show”. Of course, Dr. Phil might get it considering his on #2 spot in terms of viewership and like Oprah “made” him. Dr. Oz though is also doing really great considering that the show is but a year old, and like Dr. Phil, Oprah also made it. However, if Ellen decides to launch a campaign, like she did with the George Clooney where his poor staff got continuously harassed till he appeared on the “Ellen” or like when she wanted to be on the cover of “O Magazine”, maybe the TV execs will get pestered enough to cave in and give it to her.
Whatever happens though the question is likely moot because daytime TV hasn’t been the same for a long time and with Oprah gone, probably never will. As Steve Farella of TargetCast, an ad-firm, said, “Daytime TV as supplied by the networks is really all but dead. [But] It’s not because the talent isn’t there. It’s because the business isn’t there anymore.”
As for me I truthfully don’t care much who takes the slot because I can just watch reruns of Oprah on the Sezmi (Hopefully the service will be good and they’ll be everywhere by 2011!).
Tom Cruise will be returning to Oprah. Hopefully, this time he won’t be jumping up and down the sofa. The episode will be celebrating his career from that first breakthrough performance in “Risky Business.”
Oprah secured the exclusive interview with the world’s
first pregnant man
Thomas Beatie, a transgender male, announced that he and his wife Nancy (who is unable to bear children because of a hysterectomy) were expecting their child this summer. “I’m a person and I have the right to have my own biological child.”
Beatie refuses to get into a metaphysical or psychological debate of whether or not his decision changes his identity as a man. “I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn’t define who I am. Ironically, being pregnant doesn’t make me feel any more female or feminine.”
Oprah’s reality show The Big Give
is getting slammed by critics on print, on air, online — it’s multimedia bashing!
Whether her name alone is enough to pull up the fan base, or if goes the way of Martha Stewart’s Apprentice we shall have to find out.
One of the top reality shows intersects with the top daytime talk show! The Dancing with the Stars cast guested on Oprah. The show will air on Thursday.
Oprah Winfrey will be getting her own TV network
– a deal she made with Discovery. The programming will center on issues like money, health, weight, relationships and raising children.
The offer from Discovery came days after she reread an old diary entry dated May 24, 1992, when she wrote about her idea for creating her own network.
The show must go on. Despite grieving for her father’s death, Marie Osmond has promised to continue her quest for the “Dancing with Stars” title.
She and the rest of the Osmond clan will also appear on Oprah this Friday, for one of the biggest family reunions (100, and counting!) She and brother Donny will sing the theme from “The Donny and Marie” show, and they will both perform solo numbers — all in tribute to their father.
Qiuite a send-off for the Osmond patriarch, who passed away peacefully at the age of 90, days after Marie dedicated one of her dance numbers to him.
Hilary Swank got a new ‘do from Oprah Winfrey, who snipped 9 inches from her hair during her TV show to donate the tresses for a great cause—making wigs for women experiencing chemotherapy.
While Oprah’s not going to start any new hair trends anytime soon, Hilary admired her scissor-work and said. “If this talk show-acting-producing stuff for you doesn’t work out, you have a whole new career in haircutting.”
Welcome to the new Erati!!
