Black Snob editor Danielle Belton writes in a guest blog entry at Clutch magazine that the success of OWN may lie not just in Oprah's imprimatur but in her ability to attract her famous friends to create dramas, news programs, sitcoms, made-for-TV movies and all things that the star loves.
When I heard Oprah was making a network I thought she was making a “network,” as in a full-fledged, “If Oprah Had Her Own Lifetime-Meets-CNN-Meets-TNT-Meets-NBC” and sprinkled it with The Magic of O. I wanted to see Oprah work with her famous friends to produce scripted dramas, news programming, sitcoms, made-for-TV movies and all the things Oprah actually loves, along with advice shows and talk shows and reality shows. I wanted to see her continue to be a rainmaker, but to spread her rainmaking ability to the women and minorities who had brilliant ideas, but were long neglected by Hollywood’s glass ceiling. And I wanted her provide the information and entertainment women and many other underserved audiences crave in her signature fun, but heartfelt way – a way that Oprah had successfully navigated in her own media empire and show.
A network where every program is something Oprah would want to watch if Oprah actually took a day off.
If Oprah could create a morning news show, what kind of morning show would she have created? Would she have hired TJ Holmes away from CNN instead of BET? Or would she have tried to wo[o] Soledad O’Brien who just started a new morning show there now? …
Read Danielle Belton's entire blog entry at Clutch magazine.