Oprah's Network Already Getting a Reboot

After just two months, advertisers are worried
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 8, 2011 7:30 AM CST
Oprah Winfrey Network Getting a Reboot ... After Just Two Months
Presenter Oprah Winfrey speaks onstage during the 83rd Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre on February 27, 2011 in Hollywood, California.   (Getty Images)

Oprah Winfrey’s cable network has been on the air for just two months, and it’s already getting a reboot. Advertisers are worried about struggling ratings—last week, the audience actually fell below the numbers that Discovery Health had been getting before the Oprah Winfrey Network replaced it. (And the horrible reviews probably aren’t helping.) OWN has just one true hit, Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, which is also, not surprisingly, the only show on the network Winfrey actually appears on.

That show will be moved from Fridays to Sundays, in an effort to increase its ratings and thus raise the network’s weekly ratings average, the New York Post reports. Network officials are also reassuring advertisers that the entire lineup will be reshuffled over the next few weeks, and that they’ll spend about $5 million in advertising—half of what they spent when the network was launched. The new ad campaign will heavily promote the upcoming celebrity reality shows starring the Judds, Shania Twain, and the Duchess of York. Click for more on OWN, including what the critics think. (More Oprah stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X