Patch Blog: Oprah Should Disown her OWN Network

Oprah quit? Never! Not so fast.

The Queen of Talk admitted this week that she thought about quitting the Oprah Winfrey Network—OWN, her cleverly named television network, launched in January 2011. On CBS This Morning on Monday, April 2, Oprah said: “Had I known that it was this difficult, I might have done something else.”

The talk show host says she considered quitting the network last week, after OWN laid off 30 employees in March and one of its flagship shows, hosted by Rosie O’Donnell, was cancelled. OWN is projected to lose a staggering $142.9 million this year, according to financial analysts.  

Last May, Oprah ended her daily talk show after 25 spectacular years. Already a Forbes List billionaire, Oprah announced with great fanfare that she was ready to move on after hosting daytime’s most successful syndicated TV daytime show ever.

OWN was troubled from the start. Last year, Oprah announced she was taking over as CEO of the failing network, according to the Wall Street Journal and Forbes.com. This was in addition to her title of chairman. To many Oprah fans such as me, this signaled the start of something fresh and new.

Time to Disown OWN

Unfortunately, OWN should be disowned by Oprah. Immediately. No questions asked. Pull the plug, flip the switch, sell it or do whatever they do in TV-land to kill a channel.

For more years than I can remember, my friends and I watched The Oprah Winfrey Show. At three o'clock everyday, we’d tune in to find Oprah interviewing guests, mostly real women and various experts, while she confessed her personal struggles to millions of viewers.

Oprah was relatable to all of us in a unique way. We identified with her struggle to lose weight and cheered her on when she marched out on stage, showing her new body in size 8 jeans. We commiserated with her when she gained back the weight—and then some.

The show’s topics were compelling. Oprah drew us in and held our attention, day after day, year after year, for more than two decades. When my kids were newborns, after a long day with a fussy baby, I looked forward to three o'clock when I knew I’d get relief from her positive dose of feel-good TV. We defended Oprah when she became the butt of David Letterman’s cruel jokes. We empathized with her as we would with a good friend.

Women all over the world were obsessively devoted to Oprah. She helped us feel good about our imperfect selves because she was imperfect and wasn’t afraid to talk about it. She offered self-help with a personal twist. Eating disorders, secret drug abuse, secrets, lies and betrayal, beauty and health advice, fashion—even difficult topics such as racism were featured. That is quite an accomplishment.

Oprah's Power

Oprah’s Book Club would catapult a book to bestseller status overnight. If she featured a product on her show, the business could become an immediate success. When I worked in public relations, the inside joke was that every client wanted their product (or themselves) to be featured on the Oprah show. Never mind that the chances were one in a million, or that their product was junk. Clients dared to dream about that magical moment when they’d walk onto her stage.

A few years ago, Oprah decided she’d had enough of negative topics and would only focus on positive, uplifting themes. That, too, worked, although it lacked the personal confessions and drama we’d come to expect. We got to know her BFF Gayle King, Dr. Phil, Lisa Ling, Dr. Oz and the interior designer Nate Berkus. Thanks to Oprah, they all became household names with their own TV and radio shows.

Not content to retire to her ranch in Santa Barbara to play with her dogs, Oprah aired the last episode of her legendary show with a major publicity campaign. She told the world about her new network, which promised tie-ins to her former show.

OWN should have been just as fabulous and addictive as The Oprah Winfrey Show. Those of us who watched her show and read her O Magazine were ready to watch OWN just as devotedly as we did her show. We expected to love OWN.

Uninspiring, Unwatchable

Sadly, OWN is unwatchable. Ratings sometimes lie, but in this case, the ratings are brutally honest. According to a June 17, 2011 Forbes article, “Continued ‘Bumps’ For The Oprah Winfrey Network,” the show’s ratings were one-third of what advertisers expect. Ratings continue to sag.

OWN has been a ratings flop. Even with Oprah’s “Next Chapter” celebrity interview show, ratings are anemic. Actually, OWN is worse than a low-rated venture. It has been an unmitigated disaster by TV standards. The problem isn’t, as some experts believe, that viewers need to “find OWN.” We’ve found it and we don’t like it.

After sitting restlessly though a few of the low-budget reality shows that count as OWN’s original programming, I tuned out. OWN is crammed full of filler. It doesn’t have enough original programming to fill 24 hours of airtime, seven days a week. The original programming it does air is dull and insults the intelligence of potential viewers such as me.  

For example, shortly after the launch, “Primetime on OWN” featured an hour-long show about a woman who found out her father was a serial killer. The rest of the network’s programming has been filled with hours of back-to-back episodes of Chaz Bono’s sex change story and stale re-runs from Dr. Phil, not to mention “What Not To Wear” circa 2006 and Discovery channel’s creepy “Mystery Diagnosis.”

The visual image of OWN screams low budget. It’s as if Oprah lacked the money to do it right, which, we know, is not true. Discovery channel is OWN’s deep-pocket partner. The graphics are dull and the vibe is decidedly unhip. Compared to Bravo or HBO, it doesn’t stand a chance.

I don’t know anybody who watches OWN. My friends all agree that it’s uninspiring and unwatchable. The only compelling show on OWN is the “Behind The Scenes” of Oprah’s former show. I watched one episode and it made me nostalgic for her former show.

She Can Do Better

The irony (and the problem for Oprah) is that I am OWN’s demographic (women over 25). I loved her show, I read her magazine, I buy stuff her advertisers sell and I watch too much TV. But I can’t stand OWN. It’s a sad replacement for her beloved show.  

It’s incomprehensible to me why OWN isn’t a better representation of Oprah’s stellar brand. One friend of mine, a TV executive, said it’s because Oprah is a great TV host, but those skills do not translate into creating and running a network.

Oprah told CBS This Morning that if she were to write a book about her experiences with the network, it would be called “101 Mistakes.” Whatever the explanation, OWN isn’t up to Oprah’s high standards. While I won’t be watching OWN, I will be reading O Magazine and waiting eagerly for Oprah’s next endeavor.