Please remain calm: No need to panic over Oprah
Are some people really trying to make a federal case out of Oprah Winfrey’s retirement? Believe it or not, the subject came up this week at a hearing of the Federal Trade Commission in Washington.
During a two-day workshop on the future of the news media (titled “How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?”), speculation on how the demise of Oprah’s Chicago-based talk show in 2011 would impact television stations around the country was among topics discussed. In markets outside of Chicago, her show has long been the late-afternoon engine that powers up ratings for local newscasts.
“Oprah has been a major audience destination for many television stations for 24 years, driven by her skills and assisted by local television stations that aggregated viewers in her behalf,” veteran broadcaster Fred Young, retired senior vice president of news for Hearst Television, told the FTC panel. Added Young:
“Nonetheless, Oprah stations will survive! News programs or new syndicated products will take over her time slot. These days I am often offended by the agenda-driven stories about broadcaster panic tied to Oprah’s departure. You can take this to the bank: If local broadcasters can cover hurricanes, tornados and ice storms, government misdeeds and political campaigns, the tragedies of 9/11 and Fort Hood, health care reform and swine flu epidemics, Super Bowls and steroid scandals — we can deal with Oprah’s retirement. We can assume some of the syndication monies may be redirected to fresh forms of local news programming. Someone out there is sitting on the next great idea.”
Here in Oprah’s home market, where her show continues to dominate the ratings at 9 a.m. and 11:05 p.m. each day, there’s no sign of panic at her flagship station. “We have two years to figure out what we want to do, and I’m not going to rush that decision,” Emily Barr, president and general manager of ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7 told Lewis Lazare. “We’ll be looking at all kinds of options.”
As the whole world now knows, Oprah is calling it quits here and moving to Los Angeles to focus on the Oprah Winfrey Network on cable. But that doesn’t mean she’ll be hosting her daily talk show. “Her show as you know it is not coming to OWN,” network CEO Christina Norman told USA Today. “She’s going to have a significant presence on this network. Pieces of that show we’re going to want to find ways to retain, but I don’t think the format exists in anyone’s mind right now.”
Elsewhere on the media beat:
- A year and a half after he rejected a contract renewal at sports/talk WSCR-AM (670) and ended his 16-year run at the CBS station, Mike North was welcomed back to the same company — but in an even bigger role. The irony of joining CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 as host of “Monsters and Money in the Morning” (with Dan Jiggetts, Terry Savage and Mike Hegedus) isn’t lost on North: “I think it’s great business sense on both sides,” he said Thursday. “Our show will try its damnedest to get CBS to the No. 1 spot in the morning. I don’t go anywhere to lose or to fail. There’s a lot of people making money at places I helped start. And you only get one chance to play Broadway.” Credit agent Steve Mandell with negotiating the deal for North and Jiggetts.
- With Jay Leno wrecking WMAQ-Channel 5’s prime time numbers and plunging its 10 p.m. newscast into third place, it’s hard to imagine things getting worse for the NBC-owned station. But the $30 billion sale of NBC Universal to Comcast Corp., formally announced Thursday, may do just that. Phil Rosenthal reports that federal regulators might force Comcast to put Channel 5 (and other NBC-owned stations) up for sale to comply with public interest requirements. Naturally, Comcast begs to differ: “We intend to preserve and enrich the output of local news, local public affairs, and other public interest programming on NBC 0&0 [owned and operated] stations,” the company said. NBC Universal also owns Telemundo Spanish-language station WSNS-Channel 44 here.
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12 2009
blogs.vocalo.org
All this talk about raising Channel 2.
I want to see this to believe. Talk is cheap. It doesn’t start until February, but that’s when I’ll be the judge of how good or bad this is going to be. Sounds good in theory, looks good on paper. Doesn’t mean it won’t sink in February 2010 . . .
http://adventureintraining.wordpress.com
Your paragraph on Comcast and NBC is interesting, because everything I’ve read and heard has Comcast keeping only the cable channels and selling off the O&O’s, even the network. I’ll check back in six months.
what about me?
i’ll check with one of bill zwecker’s sources to find out what i’m up to.
Bruce, when did you get “People”? Didn’t know you had people??? Great! LOL!
http://adventureintraining.wordpress.com
I have never watched Oprah, so the panic on the demise of her show is meaningless to me. Put a good game show in her slot!
Fred Young said a mouthful!
Besides…how many more times do we have to watch news video of Oprah’s fans crying because she’s leaving?
Seems to me that when Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show that was going to mean the end of late night TV. Seems the nation lived thru that didn’t we.
“Her show as you know it is not coming to OWN,” network CEO Christina Norman told USA Today. “She’s going to have a significant presence on this network. Pieces of that show we’re going to want to find ways to retain, but I don’t think the format exists in anyone’s mind right now.”
yeah right, reminds me of someone buying a run down building, giving it a coat of paint and calling it a re-hab. O will have the same show, on a different network, with a slightly different name, think back to 60’s, we had “the lucy show” and “here’s lucy” six of one, a half dozen of the other
Bruce — I hear you have been sneaking into temple libraries looking for enough Hannukah music to fill then entire slot. I know a group called Rachel and Hary who are really good … let me know if you want an intro.
Comcast story is interesting…at least they’re “saying” they’ll continue to support local news, public affairs, and programming with O&O’s because they cut most of it at their local station on Channel 100. Today’s the last day for an awful lot of talented folks who were sacrificed to save a few pennies for the deal. :(
I assume that Bruce Wolf will once again fill in Ch. 5 sports on Xmas.
I’m thinking Jay Leno might work out well in Oprah’s slot…
When is Bruce wolf going to block off the street in front of his house and have a program? He could have a Chet Chitchat segment…the possibilities are endless..he could give the audience vehicles that have been slated for the “Cash For Clunkers” campaign…Instead of Bono, he could have Svengoolie!
How ’bout it, Bruce?