OPRAH’S ARMSTRONG INTERVIEW A RATINGS DISAPPOINTMENT

In the end, the biggest “get” of the past year (or longer) didn’t get the massive audience that had been predicted for it. Pt. 1 of Oprah Winfrey’s much-hyped interview with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, which aired on Thursday night on OWN, attracted just 3.2 million viewers — far fewer than the 6 million she […]

WILL ARMSTRONG INTERVIEW SAVE OPRAH’S CHANNEL?

Analysts are speculating about the effect of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Lance Armstrong on lifting the public’s awareness of her OWN cable network. In today’s (Wednesday) New York Post, media writer Michael Starr commented that it “could go a long way toward putting her cable network, OWN, on the map after two mediocre, money-losing years.” […]

OPRAH TO LAUNCH “SECTION” ON HUFFINGTON POST

Oprah Winfrey is teaming up with The Huffington Post website to launch a new dedicated section of HuffPo in August featuring videos and articles about health, fashion and culture that have traditionally been the subjects of Oprah’s talk shows. In a statement, Winfrey and Ariana Huffington said that they plan to combine resources from Oprah.com […]

HOW LONG WILL DISCOVERY CONTINUE TO BACK OPRAH?

Supporting Oprah Winfrey’s struggling OWN cable network may be well and good for now, but a senior Bloomberg analyst wants to know how long Discovery Communications, which is half-owner of the network, intends to keep on doing so. “The company needs to provide investors with a road map for this business,” Paul Sweeney remarked on […]

COMCAST GIVES OPRAH CHANNEL A NEEDED BOOST

Giving a much-needed boost to Oprah Winfrey’s struggling cable channel OWN, Comcast will expand the number of homes that it can be received in on its cable systems to 17 million, an increase of 21 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Monday). That will put the channel into a total of 83 million homes, […]

OPRAH’S CABLE NETWORK MAKES GAINS IN FIRST QUARTER

Just when some analysts were shaking their heads over the dismal ratings for Oprah Winfrey’s cable network OWN, with some predicting that it could go down and cost Discovery Networks dearly — as much as $145 million — the network on Wednesday released a statement boasting of huge audience increases in the first quarter. In […]

ANALYST SAYS FAILURE OF OWN COULD COST DISCOVERY $143 MILLION

Unless it can engineer a massive turnaround of Oprah Winfrey’s OWN cable network, Discovery Communications could end the year reporting a $142.9-million loss, according to SNL Kagan analyst Derek Baine. Clearly Baine believes such a turnaround is unlikely and that Discovery will likely be forced to cut the license fee it charges cable operators to […]

ROSIE: CANCELLATION WAS “FAIR”

Rosie O’Donnell has posted a video on YouTube responding to fans who have protested that it was unfair for her talk show on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, to have been canceled after only five months. “It was fair,” she says on the video, which was recorded on the Chicago set of The Rosie Show. […]

“BLOODBATH” AT OPRAH’S NETWORK

On the heels of the announcement that Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show was being canceled after only five months, published reports said on Monday that OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, had fired 30 employees, including two high-level executives. The gossip website TMZ described it as a “bloodbath” and said that the fired personnel included the head […]

WHY WAS ROSIE AXED?

Why was Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show on Oprah Winfrey’s cable network OWN canceled after only five months? Industry speculation spread quickly over the weekend after Friday’s surprise announcement of the cancellation. While The Rosie Show had been drawing fewer than 200,000 viewers per night, some analysts suggested, that figure may have had more to do […]

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