The chief executive of Oprah Winfrey's business partner in her Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, cable channel said today he expects the Queen of Daytime Talk to retire her nationally syndicated Chicago-based TV show in 2011, but Winfrey's spokeswoman insisted that's not yet set in stone.
OWN is a 50-50 multi-platform venture between Winfrey's Harpo Productions and Discovery Communications that's set to launch next year.
"The expectation is that after [the 2010-11 season] her show will go off of … syndication, and she will come to OWN," David Zaslav, Discovery's president and CEO, said in a call with analysts. "We're talking 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 that she and I, we're working [on] together and it's a core mission for her."
Winfrey's current contract with CBS Television Distribution to do "The Oprah Winfrey Show" does in fact expire in 2011 after her 25th season on national TV. But Lisa Halliday, chief spokeswoman for Winfrey's Harpo Productions, cast Zaslav's remark as premature. "She has not made a final decision as to whether she will continue her show in syndication beyond that," Halliday said in a statement.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-081107oprah-show,0,3715962.story
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