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When Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be ending her talk show in 2011 she promised fans that she would be going out with a bang, producing some great shows with the most provocative guests.

Now the Queen of Daytime television is targeting the most sought-after man in the news right now, Tiger Woods.

“We have reached out to him but nothing is confirmed,” a spokesperson for Harpo, the production company responsible for "The Oprah Winfrey Show," told CNN. Read the rest of this entry »

If anyone knows the art of the hustle, it’s Oprah. The talk show host, who announced last week that she will end her 25-year reign over daytime television in September, 2011, is already trying to bring fans to her new network, the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, 13 months before it is set to launch.

In an email newsletter sent out to Oprah’s mailing list on Monday night, Oprah took the opportunity to introduce OWN.

“Fifteen years ago, I wrote in my journal that one day I would create a television network, as I always felt my show was just the beginning of what the future could hold. For me, the launch of OWN is an evolution of the work I’ve been doing on television all these years and a natural extension of my show,” Oprah wrote in the email.

Potential viewers are informed that OWN will be taking the place of Discovery Health Channel come January 11, and urged to discuss options for securing the network with their cable providers.

The email directs readers to an advertisement for the network, which seems to try to equate Oprah’s new journey with the personal journey of the viewer, asking the question, “What’s next for you?” Oprah’s only appearance in the ad is a screen shot where she offers and encouraging smile.  But the rest of the ad is filled with smiling, self-assured folks, puppies, ribbons, bows and happy things. The message is that OWN is all about you, the viewer.

The ad offers no real sense of what OWN’s programming will consist of except for the implicit promise that watching it will be a transformative experience.

The message is a good one. It is a very Oprah one, what remains to be seen is how Oprah and OWN will maintain this momentum over the next 13 months. But knowing Oprah, she definitely has a plan.

It's been rumored for weeks, but now it's actually happening: Oprah Winfrey is ready to announce tomorrow that she's ending her immensely popular and influential TV talk show.  She'll drop the news on Friday morning's live show from Chicago.

Fans shouldn't panic just yet: WLS, where her show began as "A.M. Chicago" in 1984, says the final "Oprah Winfrey Show" will air in September of 2011, giving her nearly two more years to spur water cooler talk, influence trends, and push authors to the top of the best-seller list.

What then?  The media queen has been trying to get the cable channel OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, off the ground with Discovery Communications for awhile now, and it seems a good bet she'll move her attention and resources there.  After all, why "settle" for a show – even one of the most talked-about and enduring in TV history – when you can have a network?

An article posted on Hollywood scoop specialist Nikki Finke's Deadline.com claims that Oprah Winfrey will leave her syndicated talk show in 2011 and move it to her cable network, OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network).

But the "Queen of Media" isn't going anywhere, according to Winfrey's Harpo Productions... at least not yet.

"She has not made a decision yet," reads a statement to CNN from Harpo Productions. "As she has previously stated, she'll be making an announcement before the end of the year."

So it sounds like a change is coming... we just don't know when. Or where: according to Finke, the move would involve the show being produced in Los Angeles, not its longtime home in Chicago.

That said, if Oprah decides to make a move... how will it affect her show? Will fans still watch?

So by now all of you know that I am a TV junkie. I mean a total TV addict- as in, I have two DVR’s and I still seem to always be missing something that I wanted to watch. The highlight of my TV day though- the one “I can’t live without it” program; the “get home from work and run for the couch and clicker” show that I must watch every single day is Oprah.

A few weeks ago my DVR decided (yes, I firmly believe that the little machine has a mind of its own and arbitrarily makes decisions based on how it feels towards me on any given day) not to tape Journey’s appearance on Oprah. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” is my ringtone; I got home and almost had a panic attack. My point is that I, like many other people my age, and many who aren’t, are part of the Oprah “club”. We watch the show, read the magazine (I admit, I subscribe), and follow the advice of her experts. So what better place for ex-Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, to launch her comeback tour?

Palin has not had an easy go of things since the election- and it is no secret that Oprah was firmly in President Obama’s camp throughout the election itself. So it is an interesting message that Oprah is sending by having Mrs. Palin on for her first interview for her upcoming book, Going Rogue: An American Life. Now, let’s not pretend that this isn’t a huge “get” for Oprah- she’ll get enormous ratings for the interview and the press she will receive will be better than any ad campaign that her team could ever put together on their own. But as much as this appears to be a big win for Oprah, I wonder if Team Palin is going to come out on top. This interview is coming mere weeks after Levi Johnston, the father of her grandson, gave an interview to Vanity Fair magazine where he alleged- among other things- that Palin was completely taken in by the fame that came with being nominated for Vice President, that her marriage is teetering on the brink of divorce and that Palin wanted to raise Levi’s child as her own. Levi is also set to appear in a spread on Playgirl.com. If Palin is expecting to run for office in 2012, which many are expecting her to do, this can’t possibly be helping her image. 

Oprah’s couch is a couch of healing. It practically has a sign on it that says “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses”. The amount of people who have come to that couch to pour out their hearts and souls and seek solace- not to mention the forgiveness and/or approval of the American public is immeasurable.  

What better place for Sarah Palin to relaunch her career than on that healing couch? And if she can get Oprah’s stamp of “approval”? Well, I would imagine that they would consider that to be icing on the cake.

Not to worry folks- you know where I will be on November 16^th- on my couch, right in front of that TV, watching with all of you.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is sitting down with Oprah Winfrey.  According to Harpo Productions, the two women have never crossed paths before, and this will be the first time they meet.  The interview is set to air Monday, November 16th – one day before Palin's new book,  "Going Rogue: An American Life," goes on sale. 

Palin, Sen. John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential election, was a polarizing figure who was both applauded and mocked for her folksy style. Following her unsuccessful bid for VP, Palin stepped down from her post as governor of Alaska, which garnered her some criticism.

 Is "Going Rogue: An American Life" on your reading list? Will you watch Oprah November 16th?

Liam Neeson joins "The Next Three Days" cast. Fred Thompson saddles up for "Secretariat." And Oprah and Chris Rock team up for "Will You Be My Black Friend?" CNN's Douglas Hyde has more on these tidbits in today's buzz:

Oprah Winfrey had a live show this morning in New York City, and we were there and allowed to shoot the first five minutes of the show.

The big news is that Oprah's new book club selection is Uwem Akpan's "Say You're One of Them," a collection of five long stories about war-torn Africa.

The crowd was full of tourists and New Yorkers, including four guys from Missouri who were such big fans of Mariah Carey that Oprah brought them into the show to see her perform, and even let them introduce the singer. But what you didn't see was the four of them performing on stage for the full crowd before the cameras started rolling. They got to do a little karaoke for the assembled audience, which may have enjoyed their energy, but I don't think Simon Cowell would have approved.

The other thing that happened, and I don't know whether it will make air when you see the show, but there was a glitch with a live shot featuring Regis and Kelly. They clearly couldn't hear Oprah talking to them, and as someone who works in live television, I can sympathize.

But the crowd was eating up their Queen, and had a lot of energy considering that they had been waiting to get in since four or five in the morning.

"Spider-man 4" is expected to swing into theaters May 2011. Yusuf, formerly known as Cat Stevens, announces his first tour in 33 years. And Oprah and Sam Mendes team up on "Netherland." CNN's Jennifer Wolfe has more on these tidbits in today's buzz:

As if Chris Brown didn’t have enough publicity battles on his hands, he just took on another one.  Hot off his appearance on Larry King Live where he tried to convey his remorse about the incident with Rihanna, Chris is now taking on the Queen of Media, Oprah Winfrey.

In the new issue of PEOPLE Magazine, Chris Brown has this to say about Oprah who used the attack on Rihanna as a springboard for a show on domestic abuse:

“I commend Oprah on being like, “This is a problem,” but it was a slap in my face. I did a lot of stuff for her, like going to Africa and performing for her school. She could have been more helpful, like, “Okay, I’m going to help both of these people out.”?

“Slap in my face”? Maybe not the best choice of words, Chris, don’t you think?!

In response to Chris’ statements in PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Oprah Winfrey told Showbiz Tonight:

"Oprah is very appreciative that Chris Brown performed at her school but she takes domestic abuse very seriously.  She hopes he gets the counseling he needs."

Apparently Chris never got the memo: no one messes with Oprah.