OMG!!! I am truly excited that Oprah's new network OWN aka Oprah Winfrey Network launched on January 1st. I am truly addicted to this network. I just finished watching "Ask Oprah's All-Stars" with Dr. Phil, Suze Orman, and Dr. Oz.
As I have always said Oprah has been my media idol!!! That is why I got in the broadcasting business and why I blog,write,etc. I don't want to be the NEXT Oprah Winfrey, I want to be DA DIVA MIKA aka Tamika Shanea'!!!
Smartly tapping into that long-cultivated audience, the first program Winfrey plugged was Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, an "uncensored, unprecedented look" what it takes to make nation's most popular talk show tick every day. Following Winfrey during everything from her makeup-less drive to work to tense meetings with senior staffers, Winfrey is attempting to give the first peek behind the curtain of her daytime empire.
Winfrey then turned the focus onto the other celebrities that will grace her new network. The new series "Oprah Presents Master Class" will feature raw interviews of such stars as Diane Sawyer, Jay-Z, Simon Cowell, Sidney Poitier and Lorne Michaels, who Winfrey described as some of our "greatest thought leaders."
Winfrey also showed sneak peeks of celebrity-based reality shows that played almost like weekly therapy sessions for the shows' stars. "Finding Sarah" follows Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson on a journey to find her own self-worth. "Why Not? With Shania Twain" centers on the parallel decline of the country megastar's marriage and career as she lost the confidence to perform as her fame grew.
The network will have some dysfunctional celebrity family reality series on it. "The Judds" follows mother-daughter country duo Wynonna and Naomi Judd as they learn to communicate before hitting the road for a new tour. "Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals" focuses on the father and daughter actors trying to repair a bond that was broken when Tatum was still a young girl.
The two most enticing programs for our money are Lisa Ling's documentary series, "Our America", which follows Ling as she dissects the lives of various groups, including sex offenders, faith healers, drug addicts and transsexuals, and Your Own Show (Friday, Jan. 7 at 8/7c), a competition series featuring 10 finalists competing for their big break — a show on the new network.
Sticking a little closer to traditional reality fare are such shows as "Enough Already!", which shows organizational expert Peter Walsh save families from "destructive" clutter in their homes; "Christina Ferrare's Big Bowl of Love", a rather paint-by-numbers cooking show; "In the Bedroom with Dr. Laura Berman", which documents the sex expert as she tries to help couples reignite their sparks; and "Kidnapped by the Kids", on which workaholic parents are forced to put down their BlackBerrys and spend the week with their families.
"Miracle Detectives", which follows two investigators — one a believer and one a cynic — as they try to explain illogical occurrences, will likely hinge on how interesting the "miracle of the week" is. Other series include "Addicted to Food", which focuses on an intense rehab center that helps overeaters and bulimics alike, and "Breaking Down the Bars", which follows a group of women in prison.
To come later in the year are talk shows from Rosie O'Donnell and Winfrey herself, the latter called "Oprah's Next Chapter".
"With this channel, we wanted to create the kind of television that wouldn't waste your time. Television we believe you want to watch," Winfrey said. "Every day, here's what I'm hoping — that you will find something here to inspire you."
I'm truly excited and I look forward of all the good programming that is to come out of this network!!!
Like Oprah says "Let's OWN it together"!!!
