The queen of TV is taking a step up in the world by creating not a new show, but a new network. Apparently The Oprah Winfrey Show and O Magazine were just not enough for the ambitious Lady O. She was inspired to create an entire network devoted to ‘encouraging people to live with an open heart’ and so the little monster OWN was born.
I don’t deny the fact that I really like Oprah; she is a positive role model and is inspiring. When I first heard the network would be launched I was excited to say the least, all the hype in the media made the network an exciting prospect. I don’t know if I expected magic to simply pour out of the TV while watching OWN, or if I thought Oprah would appear in the flesh before me when I finally got to watch her shows, but whatever my expectations were, they were not met. There was no way the network could live up to all the hype that had been created, it had been present as if OWN was going to cure cancer and create world peace. No, instead it is just a new born network that is awkward.
OWN isn’t completely like any other network because the shows created by OWN are kind of weird and not extremely entertaining. The Gayle King Show consists of Gayle King (Oprah’s best friend) sitting in chair, talking in a monotone voice and doing nothing else because it is a live radio broadcast. So yes, she just talks into a giant microphone and shuffles around her sheets of paper, I wanted to jump out of a window. To make things worse the show took a “small break” which I assumed would be a commercial break, instead they panned out the camera and proceeded to play awkward elevator music in the background. I wondered if they actually knew that they were on TV in the first place, and then when they took the small break I would have bet my life that there was a huge mistake being made. There were crew members walking around and the elevator music continued for a couple minutes, I was embarrassed for Oprah. The show’s entertainment value was equivalent to watching a dusty old radio.
The programming only goes down from there, Anna and Kristina Grocery Bag consists of two amateur cooks working their way through a cook book. This sounds like a cute concept, but really think about it- two women who don’t know what they’re doing; working their way through recipes they don’t really understand while being televised. I think I would rather watch trained monkeys cook, then it would be funny and the monkeys would probably be better cooks.
One of the huge shows on OWN is Ask Oprah’s All Stars. The all-stars consist of Dr. Phil, Suze Ormann, and Dr. Oz, these three answer a broad spectrum of questions and try to mediate situations. I would enjoy it a little more if Suze and Dr. Phil didn’t make the audience members cry when they try to get help from the “experts.” The only saving grace to the show is when Dr. Oz steps in to soothe the hysterical audience member. Watching people cry and be verbally attack isn’t my idea of a great show, but if you can stand to sit through the uncomfortable moments then there is a lot to learn from this show from personal finance to health problems, it is very informative but not worth the emotional effort it takes to watch.
My favorite parts of the network are the re-runs of Mystery Diagnosis and the movies played on OWN, which neither are made by OWN. They are not emotionally draining or uncomfortable to sit through. They are just entertaining and nice to watch while relaxing on the couch. But the best part of these shows is that they do not feature any of Oprah’s entourage. After watching the network for a couple of weeks now, I have decided that when I become a TV mogul and icon, I will not just give shows away to my best friends. It makes for really boring and awkward TV.
I know that I cannot begin to understand how challenging, stressful and time-consuming it is to build a network from the ground up, but overall it just seems the network was not ready to be launched. It isn’t polished and I feel like they accidentally hit a big red button and launched the network and just decided to keep it on the air for the heck of it. I am not a fan of the network; it’s an overload of Oprah.