The end is coming for Oprah's show
This is The End.
Oprah Winfrey will announce on Friday's live edition of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that she will leave her daily talk show in late summer of 2011.
There was, however, immediate speculation that her show, or some version of it, could move to Discovery Health Channel, which will be renamed OWN - for Oprah Winfrey Network - when it launches in January 2011. But at this point that move looks unlikely.
Nevertheless, the broadcast version of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will end a little less than two years from now. In a late afternoon message - "bombshell" may be the better word - to stations that carry the program, Tim Bennett, president of Harpo, Winfrey's production company, said, "The sun will set on the Oprah show as its 25th season draws to a close on Sept. 9, 2011."
A powerful influence
Even though that's 22 months away, the impact on the TV industry will be seismic. Besides her own considerable empire - which now spans the entire media spectrum - television dynasties have risen, and risen, on the shoulders of her show, especially ABC.
For popular culture, the shakeout could be significant, too, should Winfrey bow out entirely. "Oprah" made Oprah an icon, launched Broadway hits, theatrical movies, best-sellers and even helped elect a president. She is the meta-talk-show host - more cult figure or economic force than TV personality - who has blessed her "favorite things" - books, diet or life style - while fans and their dollars have followed.
The other part of this picture is a little less glamorous. Viewership now stands at about 7 million a day - a vast figure, though down from the heights of the '90s, while some industry observers insist her show lost some conservative viewers when she took a sabbatical last year to campaign for then-candidate Barack Obama.
In addition, CBS owns King World - the company that sells her show to TV - and both were expected get less revenue from stations squeezed by the terrible economy. Moreover, Discovery Communications - her partner in OWN - had reportedly pressured her to drop her show to join the network they had announced to considerable fanfare in 2008. At the time, Winfrey said in a statement, "Fifteen years ago, I wrote in my journal that one day I would create a television network, as I always felt my show was just the beginning of what the future could hold." This was to be - she added - "the evolution of the work I've been doing on television all these years and a natural extension of my show."
OWN's own challenges
The formative OWN has been troubled. The launch has been repeatedly delayed, executives have left, and Winfrey has equivocated, per industry observers. The choice, they say, is or was not easy - lose a base that gave her worldwide fame or begin anew.
"I think the indication here is that she is serious about this, and people were starting to wonder," said Andy Friendly, former chief of King World Productions, who worked with Winfrey and now runs his own production company. "This will be the next chapter in her life and her career, and she's giving up the richest oil field in the business to do it."
He adds, however, that "she loves doing [the show] and loves that platform and what better way to launch this network, which she's clearly serious about? You might as well do [the talk show] a couple years as a magnet to attract other talent to the network and viewers - unless she's just dead sick and tired of doing - which I don't believe is the case."
Michael King, who along with his late brother Roger, sold "Oprah" to TV stations since its launch more than 25 years ago, said "she will leave commercial TV and I am sure she will want a little time off and I am sure she will have a lot of exciting programming [at OWN]."
OWN wasn't Winfrey's first attempt at launching her own network. She was involved in Oxygen, now owned by NBCU, but withdrew from the venture when she decided it didn't mesh with her vision. Enter Discovery Channel and OWN, which aims to "entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives."
Nevertheless, without Winfrey's day-to-day involvement, the network appeared to founder. Winfrey is expected to move her base of operations from Chicago to Los Angeles, and if she moves her show there, too, OWN could soon become among the three most recognizable letters in the TV industry alphabet soup.
