It has been less than a month since the last episode of the
Oprah Winfrey Show aired and already the Queen is back on her grind, this time to rejuvenate her somewhat ailing television network.
After sprinting to the starting line and bursting through the gates,
OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has since watched its ratings tumble. But with her long-running talk show now a teary-eyed memory - dab-dab, sniff-sniff - Winfrey has committed herself to building the brand and bolstering her network's ratings.
"The vacation that I thought that I was going to have is over,"
Oprah Winfrey told more than 1,000 people attending the
National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention in Chicago, according to a story in the
'Los Angeles Times' this morning. "I need to be there. I need to be engaged and be involved," Winfrey said.
That means a move from her beloved Chicago to Los Angeles.
Winfrey said that all of her energy had been dedicated to taping her 25th season of the Oprah Winfrey Show, which left little time to worry about plummeting ratings and programming. The result? OWN has struggled to find its voice. The network was built on the Winfrey brand, but without the big O in the building or her magical hands on the wheel, the network, a joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc. has been by some estimation, a disappointment.
"I let other people worry about the ratings," Winfrey told the audience, conceding that she doesn't even open daily email that might contain media coverage about OWN. No need for an email, she said, when she can flip to the channel herself and see what's lacking: the glorious stuff that made the Oprah Winfrey Show spark and sizzle.
To boost ratings Winfrey said that she would land big name guests for specials that would air exclusively on the channel. She named two of her most desired guests.
First up,
Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother who in 1995 was sentenced to life in prison for killing her two young sons.
Winfrey said she always wanted to have Smith on her show to explain her thinking and her actions, the L.A. Times reported.
The second, drum roll please...
O.J. Simpson!
"I have a dream of O.J. Simpson confessing to me," Winfrey said.
Winfrey said the interview would come with conditions, not least of which would be Simpson agreeing to confess to killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, a crime that he was acquitted for also back in 1995.
"I want the interview on the condition that you are ready, Mr. Simpson," Winfrey said. "And I am going to make that happen, people."
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