Delayed launch, executive shuffle plague Winfrey's fledgling OWN.
Has Oprah lost her golden touch?
For over 20 years, just about everything connected to Winfrey -- even coupons for KFC chicken -- has been guaranteed money in the bank. But her latest venture, the upcoming L.A.-based cable network under Discovery’s umbrella, the Oprah Winfrey Network, is going through tough times.
OWN’s president Robin Schwartz resigned April 20 after only 10 months at the network. The launch date has been moved from 2009 to the first quarter of 2010. And it remains unclear whether Oprah will move her “Oprah Winfrey Show” to OWN after its syndication contract with CBS expires in 2011.
“It has been a rocky start. But it’s hard to launch a network. Maybe they were a little too ambitious,” said a former Discovery executive, who requested anonymity.
OWN declined to comment for this article; representatives of Winfrey’s Harpo Productions did not return requests for comment.
Discovery Communications (DSCA) president and CEO David Zaslav has said Discovery will spend $70 to $80 million on the launch of OWN, which will replace the Discovery Health Network in 70 million homes. Programming, according to Discovery, will be “a mix of original and acquired programs with plans under way for strips, specials and acquired movies.”
In early April, OWN’s CEO Christina Norman unveiled six reality programs that were in development. The slate includes shows hosted by frequent “Oprah” guests Peter Walsh and Dr. Laura Berman, an investigative-news program featuring “The View’s” Lisa Ling and a celebrity “adventure” show produced by Ashton Kutcher's Katalyst Film. (See accompanying list of shows in development.)
But it’s unclear whether any of OWN’s shows have begun shooting.
When asked why the Oprah Winfrey Network’s launch was postponed to 2010, David Leavy, Discovery’s executive vice president of communications, told TheWrap it was a strategic move, not a financial one. The network, he said, will be better positioned to enter the marketplace early next year.
As for Schwartz’s departure, it seemed there were too many cooks on OWN’s executive team, especially after Norman was hired along with producer Nina Wass and former Lifetime executive Maria Grasso.
Leavy told TheWrap that Schwartz left so that the company could “focus on having one senior leader at the organization.”
“The first team did a good job of establishing the bones of the effort,” he said. “Then Christina was able to come in with fresher eyes, more experience. No one wants to have too many layers at the top. This helped clean up senior-manager processes.”
The former Discovery executive told TheWrap that Schwartz spent too much money on new projects and wanted to produce pilots of all of OWN’s shows -- something that is rarely done with nonfiction series.
Leavy, however, responded that he had not heard about Schwartz going over budget adding that her exit “was never a cost overrun issue.”
But Schwartz seemed an odd choice to head OWN from the get-go, given her extensive experience in producing scripted television but lack of experience with reality, on which the network seems to be focused.
