It is too soon to say that Oprah will move her daytime talk show to her own cable channel OWN since talks are still undergoing.
- November 6, 2009
AceShowbiz -
The thought that Oprah Winfrey will move her talk show to her cable channel The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is too preliminary. CBS Corp. which has the distribution right to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for local televisions, said on Thursday, November 5 that talks are still underway to keep her from leaving.
"The decision is Oprah's to make," CBS said. "As we have stated repeatedly, we love Oprah and if she wants to continue her show then we want to continue to be in business with her." On the other side, Oprah's production company Harpo released their own statement, saying nothing has been determined yet but Oprah will make one before the year ends.
The core of the story is Deadline Hollywood whose columnist Nikki Finke reported that Oprah may not renew her contract with CBS to focus on her not-yet-launched cable OWN. In its 24th season, the daytime talk show has one or two years left in the contract but Discovery Communications which is Oprah's partner in OWN allegedly has given Oprah an ultimatum to "move it or lose it".
Oprah Winfrey is expected to make an official statement within a few weeks since Discovery is looking at early 2011 as the launching of OWN. By then, Oprah will be moving from Chicago to OWN's headquarters in Los Angeles.
