OWN goes live on Jan. 1
CHICAGO – As 2010 drew to a close and 2011 quickly rolled in, media mogul and Kosciusko, Miss. native, Oprah Winfrey, continued to make her mark in television history, as her cable network venture, OWN, went live at 12 p.m., Eastern standard time.
“Happy New Year everybody and welcome to OWN,” Winfrey told viewers, as she launched her new channel on Jan. 1. “This, as you can imagine is a very exciting day for me, kicking off the next chapter of my life with all of you…the Oprah Winfrey Network is finally on the air.”
The Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, originally announced more than three years ago, is co-owned by The Discovery Network, and had a startup cost of $189 million. OWN was initially available in 80 million homes and replaced Discovery Health, in the Discovery Channel’s lineup. OWN will produce a whopping 600 hours of original programming in its first year.
“I wanted to take the ideals of great television that we’ve established on The Oprah Show and bring them to you in a variety of new shows 24/7,” Winfrey told OWN viewers. “Every minute of this network has been hand-selected by me for you, the viewers.”
The launch of OWN began with a “sneak peek” at some of the station’s original programming starting with a behind the scenes look at the wildly successful Oprah Winfrey Show.
“This is something I swore I would never do,” Winfrey said. “Now I know, never say never. For the first time in 25 years, I’ve allowed cameras full access inside the world – the very private world – of The Oprah Winfrey Show during our farewell season. It’s an uncensored, unprecedented look at what actually goes on behind the scenes to put on that show.”
Winfrey has long boasted that her production team is a stellar group of hardworking individuals, and in Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, viewers get to witness the emotionally charged and fast-paced day crew members experience with every Oprah show episode.
OWN also premiers shows hosted by country superstar Shania Twain and the former Princess of York Sarah Ferguson, and a reality series featuring the often public and very turbulent lives of Ryan O’Neal and his daughter, Tatum.
Winfrey told viewers that one of her favorite shows launching on OWN is Master Class, featuring some of the biggest names in the world, such as Sidney Poitier, Jay-Z and Diane Sawyer, who are considered “masters in what they do and how they live,” Winfrey said.
Winfrey said Kidnapped By The Kids is another favorite where frustrated children spend time with their workaholic parents.
Later this year, OWN will also launch Winfrey’s new show, Oprah‘s Next Chapter, when after 25 years and 5,000 episodes, the last episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show airs in June 2011.
Winfrey has consistently held the top spot for the highest rated talk show in American history, with the award-winning Oprah Winfrey Show.
Winfrey is reportedly the third black woman in history to launch a television network behind Sheila Crump Johnson, the first black female billionaire, at BET and Cathy Hughes at TV-ONE.
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