Oprah Winfrey has one life to live and it’s her own. She is not going to move ABC’s canceled soaps to her OWN Network. She released a video to YouTube (see it below on our video player), which was quite extraordinary, explaining her position.
With a little editing, here’s what Oprah says on camera: “I would like to say thank you to everybody who has been responding, bombarding our message boards really with your requests for me or OWN to take on the soaps. I understand what’s it like…to have a show you love off the air…I felt the same when Mary Tyler Moore went off the air, I must say…I appreciate that you all think I could save the soaps.
But here is the bone marrow truth. The soaps have been an institution in broadcast history and television because they had the support of the audience…There are just not enough people at home in the daytime to watch them.
Believe me, if there was a dime left to be made from them on broadcast television it would still be happening. And so because all good things come to an end, and all good things have their time, as do the soaps, as does The Oprah Winfrey Show, I will not be taking on the responsibility of trying to revive an institution that for all intent and all purpose indicates that time has come for it to be over. So thank you for believing I could save them. But I really can’t.”
My opinion, not that Oprah asked? I watched a big block of OWN recently. It is quite dreadful. It’s all reality and fake documentary and makeover crap. It’s well below the standard set by her own show. I don’t know if adopting the ABC soaps is the answer, but if OWN is going to survive, it’s going to need some kind of high quality scripted programming. Otherwise, it’s just competing with cable’s wasteland of 500 vapid channels. She could worse than bring on half hour versions of the current ABC shows.
