From the Editors
The End of Oprah As We Know It?
Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke reported yesterday that Oprah is giving up her CBS daytime show and taking it to OWN, her Oprah Winfrey Network. "Leaving the extraordinary visibility she enjoyed through syndication for a nosebleed cable channel is a huge gamble for Oprah as a TV brand," Finke writes. "There's the possibility that OWN could distribute her new talk show for syndication. But I hear no one is talking about that now." "Adversely affected would be CBS, obviously," says NY Mag's Vulture, "but also the ABC stations that air Oprah, plus all of the other things on which she exerts an influence (so long, publishing industry!)." AdAge's MediaWorks reports that OWN's "launch date has also been a moving target--initially set for fourth-quarter 2009, then pushed back until summer 2010. Now reports are putting that date closer to early 2011 to accommodate a possible acquisition of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.'" "This could be the end of an era (or lead to a true explosion in cable," remarks I'm Not Obsessed. "If it's true."
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