Can one interview mark the beginning of a comeback for Oprah Winfrey’s beleaguered cable net OWN?
The ratings-challenged project of the former daytime talk queen hasn’t exactly caught on. But perhaps last weekend’s interview with David Copperfield, which utilized Winfrey’s trademark interview style to get headline making news out of the secretive magician, could be the beginning of some positive momentum.
Or at least that’s what Alex Strachan of the Ottawa Citizen thinks…
Oprah Winfrey has struggled to establish her OWN television network, but as her sit-down with illusionist David Copperfield in her Oprah’s Next Chapter talk program shows, she still has a natural gift for making celebrities talk about subjects they’d rather not talk about.
The real reason OWN has struggled is that running a cable channel — and providing 24 hours a day of worthy, worthwhile programming — involves an entirely different skill set to hosting and producing a daily afternoon talk show. Oprah’s Next Chapter is what Oprah does best: talk to people, put them at ease, get at the truth, or a version of the truth, and not let the seams show.
Canadian viewers can catch the DC interview tonight at 8 p.m. on OWN.