As if it were possible, Oprah aims to spread influence even further with new network, OWN

Hold onto your Best Life fitness plans and those Secret vision boards because the queen of daytime is bringing her brand of television to viewers anytime, with the launch of her very OWN network, The Oprah Winfrey Network.

After spending 25 years scoring the crème de la crème of interviews, launching careers, bringing countless people to tears in front of millions, giving away cars and oodles of tech gadgets, surprising the bejeasus out of some guests by fulfilling deepest desires and endorsing everything from books to sex toys, Oprah announced she was leaving her couch-jumping, “favorite things” days behind, with 2011 marking the final season of her talk show.

However, she is not going anywhere — just the opposite, actually. With the change of a single word — “show” to “network” — she’s taking over her own channel and, for those who have Bright House and reside in the Tampa Bay area, channel 20 just got Oprahfied. The former Discovery Health station is now a cynicism free zone, purified of all pessimism and oozing with the optimism of the O.

After watching a preview episode of all the new content OWN will air during 2011, several episodes of the various shows and Piers Morgan’s CNN interview with the queen of interviewing herself, I conclude a network is nothing more than the next logical step in the universe of Oprah. Just like The Oprah Winfrey Show, OWN will be obsessed with well-being and self-help, featuring shows focused around Oprah-accredited experts who tell people to get over everything from hoarding issues and damaged family relationships to in-the-bedroom problems and – Oprah’s eternal archenemy– body weight and eating disorder struggles.

The reality-meets-therapy TV of OWN is seen in shows like In the Bedroom with Laura Berman (takes on: sex and love), Enough Already! With Peter Walsh (takes on: clutter and hoarding), Money Class with Suze Orman (takes on: finances) and celeb based shows like Finding Sarah (takes on: Sarah Fergusson’s depression) and The O’Neals (takes on: Ryan and Tatum O’Neal’s family resentments and discord).

While I find the self-help messages of Oprah to be a bit Brady Bunch-ish in nature – usually trite, sometimes superficial and always flawlessly tying to a universal lesson by the end of the hour — and even though I cannot stand how she spoon feeds intellectual conversation to viewers, I would be insane to deny her power to use television to educate and influence by exposing people to different life ideologies and diversity in the world around them, which they may not otherwise open their eyes to, and this is where I believe OWN most succeeds.

So far, Oprah Presents Master Class is definitely the show I find most insightful and eye-opening. Oprah steps naturally into the role of professor on Sunday evenings, bringing in inspirational guest speakers – Diane Sawyer, Jay-Z, Simon Cowell, Lorne Michaels, Condoleezza Rice, etc. — to relay life lessons they have learned on their journeys to excellence. Each episode focuses on one person, who sits in front of a blackboard and basically gives an autobiography on the ups, downs and in-betweens of their life. Poet and legend Dr. Maya Angelou’s episode aired last Sunday, and I believe one of her quotes from the segment sums up the essence of Master Class, “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.” Cowell’s Master Class session will air this Sunday at 10 p.m.

I am surprised by how interesting I find Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes. It seems to be a very real look inside the career of the international icon and what goes into the creation of each Oprah Winfrey Show as well as the abundance of people working on Oprah's team to make it all possible.

Other shows I am looking forward to checking out on OWN during 2011 are: Our America with Lisa Ling, Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind, Breaking Down the Bars (about women finding redemption while in prison), Miracle Detectives, as well as the monthly documentary series, which will begin in spring and features documentaries produced and presented by people like Julia Roberts and Forest Whittaker, exploring subjects such as the suicidal past of the Earnest Hemingway family.

Besides what has been mentioned, OWN has been, and will continue to, debut a steady stream of other shows during 2011, which include a live radio show with Gayle King, a comeback talk-show for Rosie O’Donnell and a cooking show with Cristina Ferrare.

In her interview on Monday night with Morgan, the media mogul said, “I am a teacher and I am happiest when I feel that people are getting something, learning something and enhancing themselves in a way they never thought of before.” In my opinion, her quote sums up the best qualities of OWN and why, like everything the woman does, it, too, will be a success.

This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.