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Cuts At OWN

Okay, okay, let's get the obvious joke out of the way.

YOU get a pink slip. YOU get a pink slip. AND YOU get a pink slip. EVERYONE gets pink slips!
 
I guess it means that there is only so much red-ink you can tolerate, even if you're a billionaire. I assume OWN is not solely owned by Oprah, and has investors, so she is responsible to them, as well.
 
Oprah did the same thing at XM. She signed a huge deal with them for an Oprah channel, but only did a half hour a week. The rest of the time was filled with Oprah's friends. If you like Oprah, you probably like Oprah's friends. But that's not the big draw. People want Oprah, not her friends. Even then, people got used to a solid, well-produced hour a day. She did great TV. It's harder when you spread that out over 24 hours. Harder when you staff for spreading it out over 24 hours. And even harder when that channel isn't easily available to everyone. The Oprah afternoon habit was broken. Not everyone wants to pay for Oprah. They should have learned this with XM.
 
It's pretty simple.. Oprah is a good talk show host, not a businesswoman. Just because she has a ton of money does not mean she knows how to run a business. She was late getting the channel on the air by several years, had a revolving door of network presidents before it went on the air and had to give up her syndicated talk show when Discovery insisted she get it going. Agreeing to start this channel was the single worst decision she has ever made. I'm sure Discovery feels the same way. It's cost them a fortune and is getting lower ratings than the channel it replaced. Whenever her contract is over with Discovery, you can bet they'll find a way to declare victory and close up shop.
 
tested said:
Whenever her contract is over with Discovery, you can bet they'll find a way to declare victory and close up shop.
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I really expected XM to do the same, but the channel is now in its 6th year.
 
DToTheJ said:
At the risk of directing this thread "outside"... somebody actually a unique take on this:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/03/20/why_didn_t_oprah_do_it_the_obama_way
Click to expand...

A couple of fundamental factual mistakes in this article:

1) It says Rosie has yet to have a successful talk show. However, we all know she had a very successful talk show from 1996-2002.

2) It says Oprah funds this channel with her money. However, it's a co-production with Discovery. It's very possible that Discovery is where the economies are coming from. Based on Oprah's history, I'd suggest that if it was only her, and not a co-production, she'd gladly draw on her own bank account. She has poured money into several of her own projects, including the school in Africa.
 
A lot of Oprah's residual projects, from the magazine to the cable channel, have suffered from her leaving the daily OTA TV show. It's very similar to what Howard Stern went through when he left OTA radio. All of a sudden, he wasn't top of mind any more. While some critics (mainly in big cities) see traditional OTA media is dead, it's funny how much of an impact they create, and how that impact isn't replaced when they move to cable, the internet, or satellite. Those other forms of media simply don't have the collective power of the older forms of media.
 
tested said:
Oprah is a good talk show host, not a businesswoman. Just because she has a ton of money does not mean she knows how to run a business. She...had to give up her syndicated talk show...
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That is the best thing that ever happened. Her groupies actually have to think for themselves and not be dictated by Oprah as to what is the best television program/movie/book/music that they should watch/read/listen to.
 
TheRob said:
Okay, okay, let's get the obvious joke out of the way.

YOU get a pink slip. YOU get a pink slip. AND YOU get a pink slip. EVERYONE gets pink slips!
Click to expand...
No, the obvious joke is Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres and Tyra Banks take over. The Rosie and Ellen Network--with Tyra.
 
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