Oprah Winfrey attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 7, 2011 in Sun Valley, Idaho. The conference has been hosted annually by the investment firm Allen & Company each July since 1983. The conference is typically attended by many of the world's most powerful media executives. (July 6, 2011)
*Oprah Winfrey will take over as chief executive officer of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network this fall, the cable channel announced today.
Winfrey will be the third CEO of the company since its debut in January. She will also become chief creative officer as the network prepares for her new talk show, “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” to debut in January 2012.
“I am ready to dedicate my full creative energy and focus as the full-time CEO of OWN,” Winfrey said in a statement.
OWN is co-owned by Winfrey and Discovery Communications Inc. Discovery Chief Operating Officer Peter Ligouri has been interim CEO of OWN since he replaced Christina Norman in May.
Norman was pushed out after Discovery CEO David Zaslav said OWN’s ratings had been “below our expectations.” Executives have said that more investments in the joint venture will depend on ratings through the next several quarters.
Discovery spent $215 million to fund the venture through the first quarter.
OWN also said two current presidents of Winfrey’s Harpo Studios, Erik Logan and Sheri Salata, would move to the same role at the cable channel.
The two will work with Ligouri as the network rolls out new shows. Comedian Rosie O’Donnell’s daily talk show will start in October, OWN said.
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Nothing against Oprah but the programming on that network is lame.
I’d seen a few movies on her network, and that was only because they didn’t broadcast it on the USA channel. I know she couldn’t give 2-shits, but I won’t support her network until she gets some flavor
I only watch the behind the scenes of Season 25. If she is taking over Hopefully! she will obtain more diverse programming and the people behind it. all she has to do is look at her overall ratings for the network.
She’s going to be CEO and record her talk show? I thought that one of the reasons the network was suffering initially was because she was doing too much at Harpo Studios.
In the words of “Earthquake” I say….”you buuuuuuullshyt’en”!!??? Like what/WHO else would this women allow to have ANY control over “her” shyt!? Yarn/Next!