So, I’m supposed to be helping Twinkle write little poems for Josh’s Advent Ribbon, which means, of course, that I’m surfing the web and listening to Rush, instead. And he posed a really good question.
What happened to Oprah?
Two years ago, she had the biggest show going. Nobody could touch her. Her ratings were through the roof, shows that followed her enjoyed crazy hot ratings as well, simply by being on right after she was on.
And then she quit. Closed the doors to Harpo Chicago. Loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly. Hills, that is. Started “her own network”. And crashed and burned.
The network floundered. They brought in Rosie O’Donnel, to no avail. They tried this format and that style. Nothing. Fired a bunch of people. O herself took over the reins. Nothing. She even returned to do an hour-long show, just like she used to. And STILL nothing. The network continues to flounder.
So what happened? How can you go from King Queen of the Hill to Flop, overnight?
Rush, of course, is encouraging conspiracy theories, including posing the idea that Nielson (the ratings company) skewed the results for however many years, making her appear more popular than she was.
I don’t think that’s the case. I think people watched her show out of habit, and when it wasn’t there anymore, they found another show (Hello, Ellen) or didn’t tune in at all. And the show on cable just didn’t feel the same. But that’s just speculation.
What do you think?
Us Girls..Our Views 
I may have watched Oprah a total of five… maybe six minutes. When she came out to support OBAMA now I decided I wouldn’t even channel surf across her path. Instead of Bush, I think its OBAMA ‘s fault. (and I’m halfway serious about that too)
I don’t know, but I have to say I never liked or even tolerated Oprah. Her style is a complete turn-off to me. There has never been one topic on her show that I felt was compelling enough to make up for her style. (Can’t stand Ellen, either.) I would rather watch no TV ever again than to have to watch either of those women.
Having said that, I really don’t know how she got so popular. But I can see how it would be easy to drop her. Did she ever really do anything “new”?
Oprah, Oprah! I used to like her show pretty much back in the day. I was fixing supper and doing homework or getting ready to take off for the mad dash of baseball games but yes, it entertained me. I’m really from the Phil Donahue of talk shows and I liked her including the audience in her shows. But as she got “bigger” and more well known and she started to like herself enough for all of us, I tired of her show and hardly ever watched. I really only watched it almost daily for the first few years.
I think the more popular and “rich” she became, the more I disliked her. She’s one of the most blatantly racist people I’ve ever seen. Her and her “po po me” got old really fast. I’m like Michael, when she hand picked Obama, her credibility to me was gone. Who is she to decide for me who should be Pres? She’s a talk show host!
Allrightythen.
Her OWN network. I’d say it’a a flop. For sure. For one thing it’s not on your “general” cable and it’s not included in all satellite packages so some people have to pay a lot more to get it or just don’t get it at all. I am a Gayle King fan. I disagree with her on politics but I really like the soothing sound of her voice and I really miss her. She’ll be starting a new job on one of the major networks in Jan and I can’t wait to see her there. She gave me a LOT of the things I wrote about on here. All those polls and “did you knows” or “what do you think” posts I got from her. I miss her. I really like calm in the morning so I’m really hoping she’ll still do some of the simple questions of life on her new show.
Rosie?? I do like her. But I only like her alone. She does NOT play well with others and I hated the way she became on The View but personally I do like her. I loved her first show. Her new show isn’t off but it did take a long hiatus. I’m not sure why. It does start back up tonight so this subject today is humorous. I had it set on the DVR and I’d watch it in the afternoon. At least the first little bit. I hope she fine tunes a few things because she is a comic and some of her shtick went on too long but I don’t know if this show will make it or not. It’s on at 6 PM and it’s pretty hard to compete with the local news.
I think the main problem with her OWN network is the first 6 months were nothing but reruns of crap from her other “stars” like Dr. Phil, OZ, Gayle King, Nate Berkus. She had Lisa Ling (ISH) doing her special programs too but all these shows were reruns. Nothing new was on OWN at first and I think now people just aren’t used to watching anything on there. She had NO variety on there. Nothing funny or cute or even many movies that weren’t all “goody goody” or “race stuff.” Who wants to watch all that heavy stuff all the time? I think she micro managed it to death.
If I didn’t have this blog I probably wouldn’t have watched anything on her channel but I need suggestions sometimes. I’m not sure where she went or what she’s doing. I personally don’t miss her one iota.
I should also say after re-reading your post that I think you hit the nail on the head about “habits.” I don’t buy the Nielson theory at all. That’s just crazy. Who would or could do that for 25 years? Na. But like I said, when I was home, I had it on. Then when I couldn’t stand it, I watched Judge Judy cause who doesn’t love her? I DVR her so I always have something “just in case.” I was never an Ellen fan because I watched Regis all those years on the other network but I have to say that I find her quirky cute self quite refreshing while I’m fixing supper. I never really knew how nice she was but she’s on my TV now at 4.
Oprah who?
I can say I never watched Oprah! I don’t think I cared too much for her either. I like Ellen on at 4 better than at 9. I was always flipping back and forth between her and Regis. She is quite refreshing like Joy said. I like how she’s crazy and dances all the time. The guests look like they have fun on her show.
I LOVE her dancing. It’s so infectious.
I only watched the show if I saw the preview and wanted to see that particular one. I’ve never been a fan, I find her so pretentious. I understand, she has done a lot for kids and charity, and she’s come a long way in her life…and she never let anyone forget that. I don’t miss her, one bit.
All i have to say is, “BARF”!!!
I did forget to mention that since Gayle King’s show went off the air, I’ve continued getting a newsletter from her show as well as the O magazine. I do use a lot of those articles on here. I find some of the “hints” and idea’s on there are really handy. A lot of them are fron Nate Berkus and Dr Oz.
Hey, I need all the idea’s I can get for this blog.
Oh! I’ve been running around the house most of the day today. I wanted to be in on this conversation, but my disposal decided to distract me from that… Anyway….
Oprah was huge when I was in college, and my roommate really liked her, so I started watching. This was when she was first on, and was still sporting the ’80’s Afro with the hair. And she was really down and dirty in competing with the Jenny Joneses and Jerry Springers. I DO like that she made the conscious decision not to continue down that path. I think she really hit her stride in the ’90’s, and there was a lot of stuff in there that I’d watch. I worked weird hours then, so I was able to catch her a lot.
But then she started getting into that new-age religion stuff. And I’ll be the first to tell you, I believe in Karma. I believe in some of that stuff. But I felt like she was getting WAY too preachy, expecting all of her fans to go tottering after her in her Ekhardt Tolle Worship (I bought his book, A New Earth, because a friend was all goofy over it. Couldn’t get through the first chapter. Yeesh), and doing those “classes” and whatnot. It really turned me off. I was “off” her before she ever endorsed Obama.
I actually dropped her when she had that idiot on who wrote “A Million Little Pieces”. Remember that? She was all into her Oprah Book Club (and what the hell? Why is EVERYTHING named Oprah? Honestly. And every magazine with her on the cover. Narcissistic much?), and put that book up there. It was the “memoir” of a junkie, and I was in the middle of some pretty heavy stuff in my life, so I’d made a note to pick it up the next time I was in town. And then the news broke that the author had lied about a lot of what was in the book. So she brought him on, “to answer some tough questions.” She asked him, point blank, if he lied to her. He hemmed, hawed, told some fantasy about how a “memoir” isn’t really a person’s memories, but really, their idea of what happened. And she accepted it. It completely floored me. I thought she should have dropped him from the booklist, taken her seal off of the cover, the whole bit. But no, she just let him skate. I never watched her show after that. She’d lost all cred with me.
Now, Ellen? LOVE her. She totally cracks me up. About the biggest thing, politically, she’ll do is talk about being nice to animals (she’s an ASPCA girl, I think). She’s open and frank about Portia, but she doesn’t shove it down your throat, you know? She’s just… married. Like anyone else, and I really appreciate that about her. She’s the one thing I really miss about not being able to watch daytime (or any, really) TV. She has reduced me to crying with laughter on more than one occasion.
Coulda been better had they made the OWN network available. It wasnt on my cable- that i could find…
I agree Dina. My mom couldn’t get it either without upgrading her cable and she wasn’t willing to go through all of that. But I know she would have watched a lot of those shows.
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