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OWN had a good weekend and it wasn’t all thanks to Oprah Winfrey. The two-night series premiere of Iyanla: Fix My Life was OWN’s top debut since the network went on air in January 2011. The Season 2 premiere of Welcome To Sweetie Pie’s on Saturday at 9 PM brought that reality show a series high. Meanwhile, the Winfrey-starring shows Super Soul Sunday and Oprah’s Next Chapter also saw big gains during the weekend. READ MORE »
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OWN Picks Up ‘Rachael Ray’ & Nate Berkus Show’ Cable Rights
The Oprah Winfrey Network is bringing some old friends to its schedule. OWN had bought the exclusive cable rights to both Rachael Ray and The Nate Berkus Show. “Rachael and Nate are a natural … Read More »
OWN Announces Fall Lineup, Adds New Series
Ray Richmond contributes to Deadline’s TV coverage.
The Oprah Winfrey Network today announced in advance of TCA its fall programming lineup, ordering three new series for fall and three more for 2013 including a new reality show with … Read More »
OWN Should Become Profitable In Late 2013, Discovery Chief Says
Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s optimistic forecast to analysts this morning is a slight improvement from three months ago when he said that his joint venture with Oprah Winfrey would merely begin to break even by late next year. He’s impressed by recent audience growth at OWN — including the 20% ratings improvement in Q2 among women 25-to-54. “Candidly we’re significantly ahead of where we thought we would be,” Zaslav said in a conference call to discuss Discovery’s Q2 earnings. While Discovery doesn’t break out revenue and profit numbers for OWN, execs said that the channel spilled less red ink in Q2 than in did in the previous quarter which included the cost of shuttering Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show. The company warned that OWN’s losses could grow in Q3: It plans to spend more on marketing as well as programming. That’s “investing into momentum,” CFO Andrew Warren says. The recent audience growth is not a blip, according to Zaslav. “We’re quite confident that we’ve begun to find the recipe for a strong women’s network” that is “starting to be what Oprah and I talked about.” He calls OWN “one of the best brands in media, and for women it may be the best brand in media.” Winfrey is “more engaged” and the channel has a “good leadership team,” Zaslav says. He adds that Oprah.com has become an important part of the mix because it helps to provide direct contact with OWN’s viewers. He notes that all eight of its initial advertising partners continue to work with the channel. Read More »
Oprah And Kardashians Together On OWN
Oprah Winfrey is getting together with the Kardashian family on Oprah’s Next Chapter with the first of two back-to-back episodes set to air Sunday, June 17 on the OWN network. It’s being billed as the family’s first television … Read More »
DESPERATE: HuffPo & Oprah Team Up Now
Talk about a lose-lose situation… Recent reports say Arianna Huffington’s job duties over AOL have been greatly downsized, while Oprah Winfrey’s failing OWN remains on life support at Discovery after losing millions. So what do the two women do? Why … Read More »
Icon UK Group Joins ‘The Butler’; Forest Whitaker And Oprah Winfrey And Intriguing Choices For Presidents
Matthew McConaughey as JFK, Alan Rickman and Jane Fonda as Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and John Cusack as Nixon? As Lee Daniels unveiled The Paperboy … Read More »
Conan O’Brien Jabs Oprah Winfrey And Ted Turner At Turner Broadcasting Upfront
The late-night comic didn’t bring his best material this year. Conan O’Brien told advertisers that if the upfront event were held on Skype, then “we wouldn’t have to wear pants.” He also zinged Turner Broadcasting … Read More »
Discovery Chief Says OWN Will Begin To Break Even In Late 2013
Discovery CEO David Zaslav wants Wall Street to ignore the “noise” about financial losses at his OWN joint venture with Oprah Winfrey. “We have a long way to go,” he told analysts this morning, … Read More »
Comcast Agrees To Pay For OWN As It Increases Distribution
The money angle is important for the beleaguered joint venture between Discovery and Oprah Winfrey. That’s why the big news from today’s announcement — even if it isn’t in the official release — is that Comcast is going to start paying for OWN beginning in January, as it increases its distribution of the channel to about 17M homes from the current 14M. Comcast hadn’t paid for the channel going back to its pre-2011 incarnation as Discovery Health. Some info about the deal leaked over the weekend. The Comcast arrangement will bring OWN up to about 85M homes. While specific terms are still under wraps, OWN’s recent deals have run about three years, and start at 20 cents per subscriber per month. That’s a vast improvement from the current rate which SNL Kagan estimates at about two cents. The channel’s backers are eager to get its finances in order: The recent cancellation of Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show and lay off of 30 employees could save OWN about $40M. SNL Kagan recently said that OWN could lose $142.9M this year, but Discovery responded that the analysis was “riddled with inaccuracies and bad information.”
Here’s today’s announcement:
Sarah Palin: Oprah Winfrey Should “Get Some Conservatives” On OWN
The former GOP VP candidate tore into Hollywood — including comedian Bill Maher and HBO’s movie about the 2008 presidential campaign, Game Change — but showed some affection for Oprah Winfrey and Tina Fey on the Today Show’s “Today’s Professionals” panel discussion segment this morning. Asked about Winfrey’s admission yesterday that she failed to appreciate how hard it would be to launch her struggling OWN network, Palin said “more power to Oprah for getting out there, showing the guts, showing the grit that it takes to succeed. ….She is representing what makes America great. You have opportunity to succeed and to fail and to keep trying again.” Palin didn’t raise her hand when host Matt Lauer asked panel members to do so if they thought that Winfrey would be able to fix OWN. But she added that she thinks the channel is “going to be around. She should get some conservatives on the show, some patriots.” Read More »
Oprah Winfrey Wouldn’t Have Launched OWN If She Knew Its Challenges: Video
Now she tells us: Oprah Winfrey‘s struggling network, OWN — a joint venture with Discovery — wasn’t ready when it launched last year. In a guest appearance this morning on CBS This Morning the talk show host and OWN chief tells her good friend Gayle King and … Read More »
Sarah Palin, Katie Couric, & Oprah Winfrey Heat Up Morning Show Wars
NBC’s Today is not taking Katie Couric‘s week-long guest stint on rival Good Morning America in stride. In the span of several hours yesterday NBC launched a promo teasing the return of a “legend” … Read More »
Oprah Winfrey To Visit ‘CBS This Morning’
Three months after her BFF Gayle King started on CBS This Morning, Oprah Winfrey will make an appearance on the revamped morning program. She will sit down with King and her co-hosts Charlie … Read More »
Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Cable Network Lays Off 30 People In Restructuring
EXCLUSIVE: The struggling OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has laid off 30 employees or 20% of its workforce today as the network is restructuring its operations in Los Angeles and New York. The responsibilities handled by the eliminated positions will be redistributed among remaining executives as well as employees of OWN’s owners, Discovery Communications and Winfrey’s Harpo Studios. “It is difficult to make tough business decisions that affect people’s lives,” said Oprah Winfrey, OWN’s CEO and chief creative officer, “but the economics of a start-up cable network just don’t work with the cost structure that was in place. As CEO, I have a responsibility to chart the course for long-term success for the network. To wholly achieve that long-term success, this was a necessary next step.”
Departing as part of the layoffs is OWN SVP Production Julie Stern. Additionally, OWN COO John MacDonald went to management a few months ago to let them know he was not planning to renew his contract. He was asked to stay on to help with the transition, which he agreed to and will stay through May. In light of MacDonald’s pending departure, Neal Kirsch, CFO of Discovery’s U.S. networks, will be moving to OWN in the role of chief operating officer and chief financial officer, reporting to OWN presidents Erik Logan and Sheri Salata. In addition, following the recent exit of SVP Business and Legal Affairs Alan Saxe, Tina Perry, VP Business and Legal Affairs, OWN, will now oversee the department and partner with Lee Bartlett, EVP Global Production Management, Business and Legal Affairs, Discovery. Michelle Holt, VP Production, OWN, will oversee production, replacing Stern; and Ian Parmiter, SVP Marketing, Discovery Ad Sales, will oversee integrated marketing for OWN. “We have been on the air for 15 months, and since September we have gained momentum in ratings and viewership,” Logan said. “Restructuring our business will allow us to build a solid foundation for long-term growth.” After a disappointing start, OWN has posted modest ratings gains in the past few months, culminating with the record 3.5 million viewership for Winfrey’s interview with Whitney Houston’s daughter earlier this month. Winfrey officially took the reins of OWN as CEO last summer when Harpo Studios presidents Logan and Salata were named network presidents.
The Quick Demise Of Rosie O’Donnell’s OWN Talk Show: What Went Wrong?
The stations groups that passed on a daytime syndicated talk show Rosie O’Donnell was shopping two years ago are probably having a “we told you so” moment today as O’Donnell’s daytime talk show on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network got the ax after five low-rated months on the air.
Related: OWN Cancels Rosie O’Donnell’s Talk Show
OWN went for broke with the launch of The Rosie Show, whose October premiere, along with that of Oprah’s Lifeclass, were broadcast on five Discovery networks. The struggling and money-losing OWN spent some $10 million to market the two shows, whose debut was touted as an unofficial OWN relaunch. That $10 million went where the previous $250 million+ in investment from Discovery went — down the drain. After an OK start with 500,000 viewers tuning in to the premiere, Rosie quickly lost more than half of that to average under 200,000 viewers for most of its run, while Lifeclass was pretty much DOA. Why did O’Donnell, who had two successful previous daytime talk show stints under her belt, on her own syndicated show and on ABC’s The View, fizzle so quickly? Read More »
OWN Cancels Rosie O’Donnell’s Talk Show After Five Months
OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has canceled its low-rated Rosie O’Donnell daily talk show after five months on the air. The network just announced that The Rosie Show will tape its final episode this … Read More »
Oprah’s Interview With Whitney Houston’s Daughter Delivers Ratings Record For OWN
Oprah Winfrey successfully returned to the type of exclusive celebrity interviews that were the bread and butter of her syndicated daytime talk show. Last night’s special 90-minute edition of Winfrey’s new OWN primetime series Oprah’s Next … Read More »
Jimmy Kimmel Unveils Star-Studded ‘Movie’ Trailer, Pitches Oprah Ideas For OWN Shows
In what has become a tradition for the post-Oscars editions of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the late-night show premiered its latest video spoof tonight, a movie trailer for Movie: The Movie, “the greatest movie ever made”. Featuring a bevy of movie stars, including George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Helen Mirren, and top … Read More »
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