Oprah may go broke!!

Winfrey loses $330 million on OWN network.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/oprah-own-losses-vein_n_1495878.html?ref=bv-pop-culture

You can bet she doesn't have a single penny of her own money wrapped up in this disaster. Her fortune will be fine. It's all the investors who sunk money into that hellhole who will be hurt.
Oprah has more money than God. Even if she was personally liable for that $330 million (which she isn't) it would not be a huge loss to her.
I think you're wrong R1. While she may have had investors, I believe a huge portion of her fortune has gone into it.
Did you read the article? She doesn't have a cent in the operation.
OWN is really a good network. Her Master Class series is fascinating and quite interesting. Oprah is a terrific interviewer. I hope people find it. This is one network that shouldn't die. Does everything have to be crap reality TV? Watch OWN.
[quote] Oprah may go broke!! Even if I wiped my ass with $100 bills for the rest of my life, I wouldn't go broke. Chew on that, muthafuckas!
O.
Maybe she'll go to law school now and really make a difference in the world.
Ruth%20Kagan-Alito
If only..... what will Scientology do for money then?
She probably used the money from her Angel Network to funk OWN.
She has $0.00 money in here - Discovery put all the money
Remember Oprah put her money into Oxgen. After that failed and when Discovery came to her. The agrreement was that she would program it and lend her name to it, but none of her own funds would be used.
If private money funded OWN, then Oprah Winfrey is about to have her a^ss sued off for about $330 million plus interest and hefty legal fees. You can't lose this amount of money and walk away.
I love the Master Class series, but Oprah is not a good interviewer at all. She makes every interview I have seen thus far about herself and not the interviewee.
charlie
I remember reading that Oprah made $1 million a DAY. So $330 million is less than a year's salary for her. Boo hoo.
How long can she rely on outside investors when the project is bleeding money? Who is going to want to throw even more money at this turkey? Would not be surprised if at some point she'll have to sink some of her own capital into it if she wants to keep it going.
no wonder she made Gayle get a day job.
[quote]She makes every interview I have seen thus far about herself and not the interviewee. Sounds like every conversation I've ever had with another human being.
She won't go broke, but she has definitely lost credibility, and her star power is severely tarnished. She'll never work in this town again.
Are you serious r5? Oprah IS reality tv. She doesn't specialize in idiots behaving badly anymore but she got her start there along with every other trash talk daytime shows. She found a niche with transforming her show into less trash and more inspirational but she over reached with her OWN network in an over saturated market she helped create herself. She is smart so I doubt she'll lose much but dumb investors who banked on a tired brand will.
Oprah needs to go to law school.
She has a 2.7 billion dollar net worth.
[quote] She has a 2.7 billion dollar net worth. And that's exactly how we're going to get back every penny that we ever lost on this OWN turd.
Discovery Channel, Inc.
Discovery Networks took over control of OWN months ago. They got rid of most of her show ideas and are programming everything now. Oprah is just a spokesperson for the network with ever decreasing power.
Yeah, she's bad business / box office poison now. And you just know that this reputation hurts her and her ego more than the money lost in that media venture being hers.
Do you think that her Hollywood "friends" shun her at parties now? It's like, "Hi, Julia!" and "Hi, John Travolta!" as they turn their backs and quickly make an exit. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" What a loser Oprah has become.
Serves 'em right for cancelling Anna & Kristina's Grocery Bag. Only thing I ever watched on OWN, so of course they've dropped it. Just checked the schedule for "Master Class" & only 2 of the subjects sound interesting to me (Ted Turner & Sidney Poitier) -- both of those episodes have already aired & I probably won't bother trying to find them being rerun.
Oh please, someone with money like that -- and the consequent borrowing power - will always be popular on Broadway and in Hollywood. I do wonder, tho, why she sold her River House apt.? (Gayle Williams is living there.)
She'll become Brokrah.
I enjoy Master Class, Visionaries, and Super Soul Sundays on OWN. I also like the idea of the Life Class and the Money Class and such, but I don't know if they lived up to the potential. I think OWN could be a great network with a focus on personal development and raising social consciousness with some spiritual and metaphysical aspects (i.e. NOT religious). That sounds hokey, but really there's nothing like that on TV, which is sad considering there's hundreds of channels devoted to everything else under the sun. We don't need another TLC or A&E that are now just a bunch of ridiculous reality shows, but unfortunately that's probably what OWN will become. Oprah does have a big ego, but she also seems to have good intentions and I wish more media moguls had that.
R6 has the definitive post on this thread. Ths thread is now closed.
Cheryl
FROM THE ARTICLE CITED BY OP: [quote]While Oprah does not have a personal financial stake in the company, it is still undoubtedly a black eye for her.
Too%20bad
She's going to have to move in with the Octomom!
Oprah is over with her core demographic if the comments on this article are to be believed. Wow. You thought DL was racist? Read these comments!
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-03/discoverys-oprah-problem
R21 parrots something she read and considers herself an expert on Miss Winfrey. Want a cracker, honey?
Chilling, R33. I never understood Winfrey's success and appeal, seeing her as just the best-at-it of the usual self-promulgating ego queens who have nothing at their core except greed and false humanity. But the racism in the businessweek comments are terrible - not just aimed at her but at others. As if the elected president can be called a grifter. Well, I suppose they ran out of the usual epithets and felt like something highbrow was called for, considering it was a business site.
Giving Oprah Winfrey a TV network to run is like giving Ann Coulter an Art School to run. I call this loss, stupid tax.
[quote] Serves 'em right for cancelling Anna & Kristina's Grocery Bag. That is a Canadian show.
This woman will never go broke. She made the mistake of not producing more original and better programming for it. Who wants to watch heavily edited movies, 5 year old dr.phil shows and shitty reality shows?!
That's a shame.
Miss Millie
Isn't her programming now about 50% of old Dr. Phil episodes?
There's a simple solution to her network problems. Stop the feel good, self improvement stuff and start airing VH1, Bravo style reality trash. Maybe it wasn't what she had in mind, but she will make money that way.
Oprah and her companies won't ever go broke. She's a smart woman and guaranteed she's got a shitload of smart lawyers. The contracts and agreements probably protect her and her companies really well.
This article only states the loses. The network has made money. I read an article a few months ago that said the net loss was over $10 million.
Drama queen, misleading thread title in the tradition of DL.
Did she cancel Christina Ferrare's cooking show? Oprah can always do a sequel to "Beloved".
[quote]Did she cancel Christina Ferrare's cooking show? Yep. I am linking to a lovely picture of Christina from her modeling days for the Lesbians. She was a stunner. Her cooking show was very informative and she was really mellow in presenting things. OWN needs to pack things in. You cannot have a network if a good seventy percent of your programming is a massive amount of marathon re runs of shit shows.
Fortune lists her worth at three billion dollars. She's not going broke. She rarely uses her own money for anything. Even her charitable donations all came from viewers who donated to her bullshit angel network.
great link, r46
My, how the tables have turned!
http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/iyanla-vanzant-oprah-interview.jpg
Iyanla%2C%20filling%20out%20ANOTHER%20foodstamp%20application
OWN is just like Dollywood. Neither woman actually owns a damn thing. They are just leasing the use of their names and their celebrity, and are getting paid quite handsomely for it.
So has it been determined how much money she has in it? She is going to BALLOON!
No @R4 of course they didn't read it. They just saw 330 million OWN loss. So happy they probably busted a nut thinking Oprah has failed and is losing money too. Typical hateful queens.
I just want to fuck Tim from Sweetie Pies
R37, I know it's a Canadian show. That's why I can't see it in America now that OWN has stopped carrying it. It's not anything real special, but I enjoyed it in the morning when nothing else worth watching was on -- so I'm pissed.
Sophia, Sophia. You sho' is PO'!
Harpo
Maybe she can move in with Barak and Michelle.
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Hope she has to hit the streets!
She is a complete failure
Ms. Rodham (could have been a contender had the O not turned against her gender)
R54 it was taken off the air because Oprah did not want to offend any of the celeb chefs Anna and Christina were critiquing. If they said so-and-so cookbook was bad, that celeb chef might decide not to get in business with the might O
She can moving in with Octomom and the Tanning Lady.
[quote] Maybe she can move in with Barak and Michelle. We don't want her. She might be bad luck for the election, especially since she reeks with the stench of failure. No thanks!
Barack & Michelle
[quote] She can move in with Octomom Oh, hell no! Do you know how much that cow eats? On my measley food stamps, there's barely enough for the 14 of us. Oprah's ass would eat us out of house and home!!
Octomom, undressing as we speak
Well, Tanning Lady, what about you? Are you out there? Can Oprah move in with you?
[quote] Well, Tanning Lady, what about you? Are you out there? Can Oprah move in with you? I'm sorry, but I can't associate myself with a loser like Oprah. They might take my kids away! Perhaps she can check with the local shelter?
Tanning Lady
Not if she's darker than me.
Tanning Lady, ultra-competitive
OWN's first mistake was deciding to only air on extended cable channel. More people than ever are getting rid of cable and the people that keep cable are decreasing the subscription services (getting rid of movie channels and extended cable). That was a major mistake and they automatically cut off half of any potential viewers
Well, then maybe she could move in with Ryan O'Neal.
Yes, it was the extended cable thing. Or maybe being on cable, period. Obviously her fans were cheap and only had basic cable, or antennas.
"Well, then maybe she could move in with Ryan O'Neal" Has she still got money? No problem then.
Ryan
Yay, we found a home for Oprah!
My vajajay is REALLY painin!
O
Christina Ferrare was gorgeous! Oh. Back on topic. OWN will either bankrupt Discovery or Discovery will shut it down really soon. I'm thinking Discovery will shut it down soon, eh? Oprah is a self made billionaire, but she is not a genius. There is nothing to OWN which is worth any more lost money.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5nKb8aLlZBw/T4s1ex2Po-I/AAAAAAAADJE/bvd7KtihALs/s1600/Cristina+Ferrare.jpg
If they're $330 million in debt and this bitch hasn't put a cent of her own money into helping, why don't they just cancel this piece of shit channel? If it hasn't picked up after a year and a half, it's isn't going to.
Ro
Oh who cares about her money. When OWN gets pulled it will be like Usain Bolt getting knocked out in the Olympic qualifiers. It's the shame!!
She needs more inspirational programming that touches the very deepest nodes within us. She needs a new soul guru. I'm waiting her call.
Rev%20Dr%20T%20Bianchi
I guess "The Secret" and that "law of attraction" bullshit that Doperah always believed in isn't working anymore...
"it is still undoubtedly a black eye for her." Ummmm, OK.
"You cannot have a network if a good seventy percent of your programming is a massive amount of marathon re runs of shit shows." News to us
Every%20Other%20Fucking%20Network%20in%20the%20Universe
There's a reason a lot of posters here work in cubicles.
Oprah does NOT, repeat DOES NOT, have a personal stake in the company. Her personal wealth is not part of the equation.
R80 the world is not that simple. If you crash your car into a bus stop, you can sued by the city for damages. Oprah was at the wheel of OWN, she has liability. If Oprah didn't make any creative decisions and just sold out her name, while she sat at home and had nothing to do with the programming, I would agree.
RuPaul's Drag Race on LOGO is more popular than any of her shows.
Is Oprah to network tv chiefs what Madonna is to hollywood directors?
So how much longer before they call it a day?
OPRAH IS DEAD TO ME. UGH!!!
Never Liked Oprah In The First Place
She's going to co-host Live with Kelly! Trust me, bitch is desperate!
Gayle King
Tonight in bed Gayle should whisper in Oprah's ear "it's time to retire and r.est on your laurels."
2.7 billion Oprah his in her pocket.
Her magazine is failing as well. Was that funded with her money? The radio show?
Oprah broke? Join the club, bitch!
Toni%20Braxton
I suppose it will be MY turn to support her!
Gayle - Gainfully Employed
She never recovered after endorsing Obama.
Oprah is not the type to just retire. She needs to be doing something to feel alive. I can't imagine her just riding off into the sunset to lead the quiet, mundane life of a retiree. Please, bitches.
OWN's ratings have risen sharply over the last quarter.
I like OWN except for those god-awful, self-indulgent "Oprah's Favorite Things" where Oprah screams "My faaaaaaaavoriiiiiiiiite thiiiiiiiiiiiiings" and where her staff has to kiss her ass about shit you can buy at Macy's. But most of the rest of OWN's programming is quite good. I wished more people watched.
Even IF Oprah lost 330+ million it still wouldn't hurt her. That's 10% of her net worth. Imagine losing 10% of your net worth: Around $5000 for a middle class American. Not fun, but not disastrous. Some people lose that every April when they pay taxes. She'll be fine
Future%20student%2C%20Oprah%20Academy%20SA
Totally agree, R92. Read any article about Oprah anywhere online, and the comments section will be 99% Freepers.
That's right, r94. The network has seen a major turnaround. Can't believe so many people were foolish enough to count her out. Networks don't just become hits overnight. They take time to grow. She made some mistakes, but most companies take a bit of time before they reach profitability.
Where the fuck is the OWN channel?
Americans%20with%201000%20channels
[quote]OWN's ratings have risen sharply over the last quarter. The ratings have improved ever since Discovery swooped in, fired Oprah's people, and took charge of programming. I was really excited about "Oprah's Favorite Things" which aired last week, but it was awful, boring and idiotic. It had none of the excitement and charm of her Favorite Things shows from years past. They filmed it in some depressing VA hall, which made all of her expensive gifts look like cheap Dollar Store finds. Many of her favorites were totally inappropriate for military families, like truffle oils and bags of lemon truffle popcorn--many of the women didn't know what a truffle was, and if they did, wouldn't want to eat one. Gayle, who's now fatter than a hippo, waddled into the room at one point looking for free samples.
Now that she's broke, we'd love to cast Oprah as Mama Morton, the dyke jailer, in a bus and truck version of CHICAGO. We've approached Ann Coulter and Michele Malkin to play Roxie and Velma respectively; and Bill O'Reilly to play Billy Flynn.
Fran%20and%20Barry
Discovery swooped in and demanded she appear more on the network, something she did not do early on. It helped push the turnaround (high profile interviews every sunday, favorite things etc). If her "brand" was over with the opposite would be true. She has a piece of syndication for Rachael Ray, Dr Oz, Dr Phil ... she is far from going broke.
One thing I'm certain for sure that works against her: try looking for any Oprah content on YouTube. There's not a speck. Her people appear to be committed at crushing any sharing. Yet I firmly believe that spreading content is what generates more interest. I'm curious about her OWN masterclasses, but I couldn't be fagged looking on her website. If some of it was on YouTube however...
I have not joined the Oprah hate bandwagon, but OWN is a mess. The best thing on the channel when it first launched was that sex show with Laura Berman, and it's taken like two years just to film a second season. There seems to be absolutely no organization.
R100, one of the reasons the launch of OWN was such a disaster is because Harpo left a lot of the programming details up to Discovery and those decisions didn't pan out. Discovery initially thought they could use Discovery Health programming to pad the schedule, but it didn't work. Ratings have gone up because Oprah has been more active on-air and the network now features programming that would be of interest to the audience they are trying to court.
When she had Joel Osteen "teaching a master class" any credibility she had with me went out the windw.
Anonymous
I'm wicked. Every time I read bad news about this insufferable, egotistical hypocrite I start laughing like Debbie in the Addams Family after practicing her grieving widow speech to the authorities after blowing Fester up.
As much as it would make some of you orgasim she isn't broke. Far from it. Oprah is far more successful than any of you miserable cunts who would luv to see her fail. DL hates women especial black ones.
That's not accurate, R105. Oprah's team did almost all the programming when the network first started, and almost all of those shows were ratings losers and quickly canceled. For example, the reality shows featuring the Judds, Ryan & Tatum, Shania and Fergie were bombs. And let's not forget the debacle that the Rosie show was. Discovery fired Oprah's team when they took over and replaced her show ideas with Discovery shows, and the ratings improved significantly. They've only kept a handful of Oprah's original programming.
Oh Lord, how could I forget about the Rosie Show! That whole project was tragic. I'm a fan of Rosie's, and it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. She kept cutting the studio size down. At first she was using Oprah's old stage. By the time she was finished, she had no audience and it looked like she was filming from the inside of a closet.
The irony is that the ratings have shot up when Oprah increased her presence on OWN. The lesson seems that people aren't tired of Oprah but they didn't want Oprahisms from the likes of Iyanla or Rosie. The lesson from the Discovery execs is that more Oprah leads to higher ratings, which is the reverse of what the HARPO execs pushed at the network's inception.
So even if Oprah wanted to get out from being in front of the camera--She Can't. Without Oprah as the star or overarching presence, the network won't do well. Maybe in time, Oprah can back away and not be on camera--but not anytime soon.
That Iyanla is a major troll. I don't believe a word she says.
She is responsible for dumbing millions of women. I hope she goes way for good. Neurotic idiot!
anonymous
If she'd had bought AMC and OLTL, OWN would be safe as houses.
Eh. As long as she's functional, I doubt she'll fade away. And about her supposedly dating Gayle? I dunno...they just seem like codependent BFFs to me (which may or may not include weird boundaries).
I hope she comes back. Say what you will but Oprah, as cheesy and celeb-obsessed as she became tried to do mostly positive things with her forum. I am glad she took a hit, she needed a reality check,but like most of America, I always root for a comeback.
Iyanla is the black Oprah.
[quote]DL hates women especially black ones You can say that again.
[quote]DL hates women especially black ones Yes, that's why you just LOVE hanging around here, hmm.
R107 - Why don't you just go on and call her an 'uppity nigger who doesn't know her place,' you know you want to. Typical ignorant bigoted queen.
R121, you typical, judgmental, hypocritical racist homophobe, since I happen to be biracial, a 22-year member of the NAACP, and a strong supporter of my sisters of color who are NOT insufferable, egotistical hypocrite cunts, why don't you reassess your own issues, biases and prejudice. Filthy, ignorant twat. (And I don't mean Oprah there.)
R107%20and%20sick%20of%20cunts%20who%20think%20O%20is%20ALL%20BLACK%20WOMEN
R122 - Typical tragic mulatto archetype. I never thought Oprah represented all black women. I guess you're one of those types who think that Oprah should shut up and donate all of her money to every black person in America too, right?
That's a shame.
Miss%20Millie
The problem with her new show was it was on cable.
The problem is/was that it's too much Oprah. Watching her show for an hour every day and assorted various specials is a lot less of a commitment to watching a 24-hour network.