The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is hemorrhaging every day, and not much seems to be working to stop the bleeding of millions of dollars every quarter for Discovery Communications, OWN's parent company.
Here are some of the sobering facts: OWN replaced Discovery Health, angering many viewers who loved the program, but, to add insult to injury, OWN's ratings are worse than the program they replaced. OWN's target audience - women over 25 - are not tuning in. Ever since Oprah closed the shutters on her syndicated talk show, her magazine, and website have been struggling. Discovery Communications dumped $15 million dollars and cross channel simulcasts to market OWN's new programs. They've done everything, short of twisting viewers' arms, to ensure this network's success...But nothing seems to be working.
Of course, after seeing all the stops being pulled out for the big O, you wonder what, exactly, is the problem? Well, in the beginning, I was excited to hear that Oprah was quitting her day job to do something far more interesting, something where she could really push the envelope. She said that she would be behind the scenes from now on. The whole venture smacked of boiling creativity, which threaten to spill over and change programming history. Finally, Oprah would launch out into dangerously deep waters, and dive in! I waited with baited breath, but when I saw OWN's programming line-up, I was so disappointed, I became disgusted.
Gail King, Oprah's long time, best-friend-in-all-the-world, had her own morning talk show broadcast on OWN. I sat and watched all of ten minutes of Gail, before my head snapped forward, waking from a sudden, and unexpected slumber, and I was wiping drool from the side of my mouth. In all honesty, Gail looked, and sounded, like the talking dead. Then, there's Oprah's Life Class, where Oprah is your Morpheus, trying to free your mind. It's an admirable goal, and needed, but wasn't she doing this on The Oprah Winfrey Show? Peter Walsh, of OWN's program, Extreme Clutter, shows us how to declutter a room in five easy steps. Didn't Oprah have professional declutterers on her syndicated show? And now, OWN has picked up Rosie O'Donnell for The Rosie Show. Didn't Rosie have her own talk show before? Do you see where I'm going with this?
The reason why OWN's ratings keep slipping down, into the toilet, is because the Oprah Winfrey Show is over, but OWN is simply an extension of her show. We've been there, and done that, with her and Rosie, so, why are we revisiting the same old haunts? People want to see Oprah do something unexpected, like actually go searching for some scripts, or shows that are already in the can. A show that's not necessarily politically correct, but dramatic. OWN's entire line-up doesn't have to be solely reality based, why not some real dramas with African Americans and Latinos? What a concept! They're the ones that supported her in the beginning and pushed her to stardom. These marginalized groups could save the network, if they would expand their focus beyond white women over the age of 25 years old.
Their new show, Oprah's Next Chapter will debut on OWN's one year anniversary, where Oprah will be in attendance at a slumber party, at Paula Deen's house. Oprah at a slumber party? Now, that could be interesting. Some inner part of me craves the sight of Oprah as her real self. I want to see her without her makeup, and without her crisp television journalist's voice. I want to see her take a leap, and let us see the tyrant that everybody, behind the scenes, talks about. Give us something to gossip about, and, then, maybe OWN can creep back from the brink of the abyss. But, if Oprah continues to pursue the path she has chosen, everybody involved is going to lose a lot of money, and she will lose OWN.
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