Oprah Winfrey Launching OWN, Her New TV Network

Jan 16, 07:08 AM

Jan. 16--Oprah's got a new TV network. But the question is, how much will the new network have of Oprah?

The queen, ruler and master of daytime talk televison yesterday announced a joint venture with Discovery Communications, "OWN," for Oprah Winfrey Network, to launch late next year. However, Winfrey said yesterday her on-air role will be negligible. She will be chairwoman of the network, which will essentially take over the assets of Discovery Health and be available in 70 million homes. (The channel is not currently available on Cablevision systems.)

She was asked in a conference call with reporters yesterday whether the self-help-cum-inspirational network will effectively become her new fulltime job after she ends her daily show, possibly by 2011 when her contract ends, or whether she'll continue with both. "Anything is possible and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but I have limited mobility in terms of appearances because of obligations to 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.'"

She added, "the network isn't just about me [but] about creating possibilities for any number of people who will be able to extend [my] vision in a way I cannot 24 hours a day."

And that vision? According to Winfrey, it came to her 16 years ago when she was struggling with the trash TV phenomenon that had overrun all daytime talk, including her own program. She said she wrote in a journal entry dated May 24, 1992 that she "wanted to create mindful, not mindless television [and I] wrote that when I was going through the conflict of Jerry Springer and everyone else going to trash TV and trying to figure out what direction I wanted t go. I said, I know what! One day I have to have my own network so I can do it the way I want to do it."

OWN, she added, will reflect the spirit of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" -- even though the show won't air on the new network. It'll be "the kind of network that will inspire and entertain people [and] continue doing the same kind of work issues like health, diet, money, relationships, spirit and helping people raise their children and teaching them how to be more of themselves."

No details on actual programs; Winfrey says those are to come.

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