Discovery Communications and Oprah Winfrey announced a deal Tuesday where the Discovery Health network will be turned over to Winfrey next year, becoming OWN — the Oprah Winfrey Network.
The cash-free transaction involved Winfrey turning over her Web site to Discovery, while the communications company makes her chairman of the network, which is currently seen in 68 million homes, said David Zaslav, Discovery Communications chief.
“The focus of the channel will be the focus of Oprah’s brand, which is the educate and inspire people to live the best life they can,” Zaslav said.
Some of Winfrey’s stable of regular contributors could be expected to be part of the programming, he said. Winfrey’s current talk show, as well as rights to use of reruns, is spoken for until the end of the 2010-11 season.
Besides hosting syndications top-rated talk show, Winfrey puts out her own magazine.
However, maybe they should be giving the network to Ellen DeGeneres?
Ellen Degeneres managed to score the top spot as America’s favorite TV star. The annual poll was released yesterday and Ellen managed to push Oprah off her pedestal.
Oprah has been #1 on the Harris Poll for the past five years. They were ranked as follows:
1. Ellen Degeneres
2. Oprah
3. Jay Leno
4. Hugh Laurie from House
5. Jon Stewart
6. David Letterman
7. Stephen Colbert
8. Bill O’Reilly
9. Ray Romano
10. Homer Simpson
source: OPRAH WINFREY AND DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS TO FORM NEW JOINT VENTURE – OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network [oprah's official website]
The writers’ strike is on, and late night TV is the first to go. Fortunately for some writers, they have bosses like Jon Stewart, who is paying his writers’ salaries.
“In a show of solidarity with his fellow scribes, [Jon Stewart] has told his writing staff that he will cover all their salaries for the next two weeks, according to a well-placed source. He has also vowed to do the same for writers on The Colbert Report.”
Jon Stewart after winning his Emmy win for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series learning for the first time O.J. Simpson is in jail. He was asked what his first question would be, in a post jail interview.
His reaction to learning that O.J. was in jail, is priceless.
Even Ryan Seacrest dressed like that couldn’t get people to watch the Emmys this year. The broadcast may have been the least-watched in history.
Preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research put the audience for Sunday’s show, aired on Fox, at 13.1 million viewers. That’s three million fewer than for last year’s telecast, on NBC, and less than the record low 13.8 million three years ago on ABC.
What were people watching? About 13.3 million viewers chose to watch the New England Patriots play the San Diego Chargers instead. Which is sad since the Patriots won 38-14 and it wasn’t even a game after the first quarter.
The best part of the whole broadcast was Katherine Heigl correcting the announcer who mispronounced her name. Other than that, there were no real surprises. But if you’re interested, you can see all the winners after the jump
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have managed to make the news again, this time by making fun of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin on South Park.
The creators of South Park have never been afraid to upset celebrities – and many of the show’s viewers. From jokes about religion and homosexuality to four-letter tirades, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have always mixed shock tactics with satire in the hit cartoon series. But they were accused of hitting a new low last night after lampooning the demise of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin just weeks after his death.
The latest episode shows an animated Irwin in Hell with a stingray poking out of his bleeding chest. Irwin, 44, died in September after he was impaled by a stingray’s barb, while snorkelling near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
The South Park episode called Hell On Earth 2006, which was broadcast in the US this week, shows Satan preparing to host a Hallowe’en fancy dress party. Hundreds of dead celebrities are invited, including rapper Notorious B.I.G., Princess Diana and Hitler.
But at the party Satan receives complaints from his guests that someone is inappropriately dressed up as Irwin. Satan confronts Irwin but the Aussie environmentalist protests it is really him, not a guest in a costume. While characters have been killed off in the series before – spawning the show’s catchphrase “Oh my god, they killed Kenny!” – campaigners are particularly incensed about the stingray still being attached to Irwin’s bloodstained trademark khaki shirt.
[...]
British broadcasting watchdog Mediawatch condemned the episode as “grossly insensitive.” Its director, John Beyer, said: “I think this is in bad taste. Steve Irwin’s family are still grieving.” “To lampoon somebody’s death like that is unacceptable and so soon after the event is grossly insensitive. It is not what the family would want to see.”
I haven’t yet seen the episode but agree that mocking Irwin so soon after his death is rather tacky. Still, Irwin was a celebrity and that’s the path he chose. His death was big news, he was mourned in a giant state funeral, and he’s been mocked publicly.
Indeed, Norm McDonald made fun of the circumstances of Irwin’s death weeks ago on the Jon Stewart Show:
Take a look at some of the related posts below for more controversial topics on South Park.
Jon Stewart dispels rumors that he’s thinking of a run for the White House. There are poeple wearing Stewart/Colbert ’08 t-shirts? Just recently, both George Clooney and Oprah were rumored or “wished in” to a presidential race as well.
Those people wearing “Stewart/Colbert ’08″ T-shirts can stop hoping – Comedy Central’s fake news stars have no intention of making a run for the White House.
Jon Stewart said the T-shirts promoting him and Stephen Colbert “are a real sign of how sad people are” with the state of affairs in the country.
“Nothing says ‘I am ashamed of you my government’ more than ‘Stewart/Colbert ’08,’ Stewart told an audience Sunday at the New Yorker Festival. He was interviewed by the magazine’s editor, David Remnick.
Stewart, who recently hosted Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on “The Daily Show,” said he’s been trying to get top Bush administration officials to appear. “We have requests in there to everyone including Barney,” Stewart said. “Only Barney replies.” Barney is the president’s Scottish terrier.
Stewart scoffed at suggestions that some people actually get their news from “The Daily Show.”
“There’s no way you could get the news from us,” he said. “I’ve seen the show. It couldn’t happen.” source
Norm McDonald was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart recently and made some jokes about the death of Steve Irwin. He observed that “44 is a ripe old age of for a crocodile hunter” and joked about how the crocodiles must feel that the guy was taken out by a fish.
It’s a touchy subject so soon after Irwin’s tragic death and yet it’s still actually pretty funny.
The cash-free transaction involved Winfrey turning over her Web site to Discovery, while the communications company makes her chairman of the network, which is currently seen in 68 million homes, said David Zaslav, Discovery Communications chief.
“In a show of solidarity with his fellow scribes, [Jon Stewart] has told his writing staff that he will cover all their salaries for the next two weeks, according to a well-placed source. He has also vowed to do the same for writers on The Colbert Report.”
