"Oprah Winfrey Show" May Leave ABC, Broadcast Syndication In 2011

Update: Harpo states that Oprah has yet to decide whether she will end her show after the 2011 season:

In a statement issued this afternoon, however, Harpo responded: "While David Zaslav's comments are true that Oprah's current contract to produce The Oprah Winfrey Show will expire in 2011, she has not made a final decision as to whether she will continue her show in syndication beyond that," says Lisa Halliday, chief spokesperson for Harpo Productions, Inc.

In fact, a clause existed in her current contract that would have let the talk-show queen end the show in 2010, but she recently chose to extend the show's run through the contract's full term.

Original Post: Oprah Winfrey will take her blockbuster talk show out of broadcast syndication and move it to her own cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network, by 2011, it was revealed in the Discovery Channel's earnings call Friday morning.

Broadcasting & Cable's Paige Albiniak reports that Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced the impending switch Friday morning, which is news inasmuch as Winfrey had previously announced she would be ending the show when its syndication deal ran out:

"The current expectation is that after fall 2011 her show will go off of ... syndication, and she will come to OWN," the cable network that Winfrey's production company, Harpo, is creating in conjunction with Discovery.

"We are talking right now about what that presence would be and what programming she would be involved in directly, but this is her chapter two, and building the OWN brand online and on-air is something and she and I are working on together. It is a core mission for her," Zaslav said.

Winfrey's distribution deal, which she re-signed with King World's late Roger King in August 2004, expires in fall 2011. That marks the end of Oprah's 25th season.

At that year's gathering of the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) in Las Vegas, Winfrey told a gathering "I really do think that's going to be it."

If Winfrey were any other TV talent, the news that she would be departing daytime when her contract expired would be a non-issue, but Winfrey has previously said she was ending the show.

In January, Oprah and the Discovery Channel announced that they were teaming up to launch the Oprah Winfrey Network in 2009 OWN will replace Discovery Health, which will place it in 70 million homes nationwide.

Comments

[SummerWind]

Double O’s

Ms. Winfrey should seriously consider running for the senate seat which will be vacated.
Her keen insight, entrepreneurial understanding of organizational structures and global brand make her a formidable candidate in any political venue. If she is not tapped to be one of our nations Ambassadors, than indeed there is a political open road before her, but it sure would be a nice way of saying thank you for her support to make her an official Ambassador to perhaps the United Nations. Double political O’s coming out of Chi-Town, now that’s a new political wind blowing gentle breezes over a newly defined American landscape.

[thefooligan5]

Why would she leave syndication? Does she not realize that is where her money comes from? I know I for damn sure don't get 'The Oprah Winfrey Network' here in canada so she will bleed ratings like a hemophiliac scaling a barb-wire fence

[kellygrrrl]

"My work here is done"

[LeiftheLucky]

Is she going to have Sarah Palin on now? Or will she black out Palin, like the rest of the media has blacked out news of our victory in Iraq?

http://allanerickson.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/iraq-war-victory-news-blackout/

[edgeways]

heh, you mean our paying people not to fight?

As to Palin, I suspect that is up to her. I doubt she want to go anywhere near any media outlet that won't fawn all over her though.

[leftypower]

Please don't acknowledge trolls as if they had substantive issues to discuss. I have seen enough of Sarah Palin for my lifetime - with or without the MSM's intervention.

[peterhowitt]

For a victory there needs to be someone who is vanquished. Who exactly has been vanquished in Iraq? Al Queda? - No - Terrorism? No - what?

Americans are obsessed with the word 'VICTORY' and that nauseating chant 'U-S-A.... U-S A'

Get over yourselves.

[Bluebloodsbastardson]

here come the trolls

[lisangela]

Oh, you mean the war we should never have waged, and shouldn't be in now? The one that costs the families of over 4000 men and women the ability to see their loved ones come home alive? You mean the one where there is nothing for us to actually win? You mean the one costing us 10 billion a month that we could be using here at home instead our economy melting down beneath us? The one that cost the USA its moral authority in the eyes of the rest of the world? You mean that one?

Yeah...gee I really don't know why the media won't cover that properly. Shame on them.

[dajay]

Now that is the best news I heard all week.

[DundeeNatalSA]

she definately needs the OWN channel to put some positiveness into the world.

[floib]

Oprah, say it isn't so.

[lorla]

I guarantee that there would be trouble at my house if I leaned on another man's shoulder all night, while my man was standing behind me.
S teadman is just a cover for her and her "best friend".

[harriettubman]

She talked about leaving a few years ago but decided to stay. She's had a great platform to help people all over the world. I'll never forget that. She's been the best talk show host in history.
She has stayed for her love of people and to keep people employed. But there comes a time in one's life where there's other things to do.

King World will lose a ton of money after Oprah leaves.

[toocoldout]

I love Oprah. I want her to be on for ever. It wouldn't feel like America without her.

[DeeW]

I don't really know enough about the industry to know if this is good, bad or whatever. But we need another channel? I doubt it. I find these new channels just have a lot of reality shows that I never watch or a lot of re-runs of old shows that you can get for free with your basic cable. So, based on that I'm not really excited.

[Candyland]

So now only people with money to pay for cable (and whichever cable "tier" she ends up on) can watch Oprah? Bad move. Her appeal is more down-home than that. I'm disappointed to see her make this decision.

Television is slowly moving out of reach of the masses. I'm convinced the switch to digital is primarily designed to draw people to cable or satellite (or buy new, expensive digital TVs). It used to be a cheap night in. Now it costs a month's salary just to get set up.

[zbjordan23]

Dreadful news to all boyfriends everywhere....not only do we have to deal with the "WE" channel...now we have to deal with the "Oprah Winfrey Network"...great...she better be showing re-runs on Sundays....

[JJ30]

Let's not forget Lifetime! LOL! :-)

[lovethesinner]

I don't know enough to be able to tell if this is good or bad. All I know is... I love Oprah, (so I HOPE it's good).

Opera Winfry 2016

[Changeling]

Let it go there to die and O to fade into obscurity.