Fear not, Oprah fans – her decision to expand her TV presence from “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to “The Oprah Winfrey Network” (OWN) doesn’t mean you won’t be able to see Oprah on TV at least a few times a week. In the newly announced lineup for OWN the powerful multi-hyphenate announced her plans for a new show, “Oprah’s New Chapter.”
The new series, which will air two or three times a week, will follow Oprah out of the studio as she travels the world, looking for interesting people and interesting stories to tell. ”I’m going to take viewers with me, going to take celebrities I want to interview with me,” Oprah said in an interview about her planned world travels for ”Next Chapter.” The series will appear in prime time – a big step for the host who has ruled the daytime air waves for years.
Though OWN is scheduled to launch on January 1st, 2011, “Next Chapter” may not appear on the network right away. Oprah’s contract for “The Oprah Winfrey Show” doesn’t end until September 9, 2011 and taping two full time series seems like a little much, even for Oprah. The first lady of talk will be making her presence felt on OWN before that deadline, however, in several different incarnations, including potentially hosting a book club show. As she told the Wall Street Journal: “My name’s going to show up on that grid a lot.”
The rest of the lineup includes a mixture of talk and reality programing. Titles include: “Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind”, “Your own Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star,” “Breaking Down the Bars,” “Enough Already,” “Kidnapped by the Kids,” “Miracle Detectives,” “Gayle King Live!” and “Why Not? with Shania Twain.”
