Oprah, or otherwise known as “The queen of afternoon television” (Devin Leonard, 2012), made a tremendous farewell during her final season on ABC television, breaking the records of 12.6 million viewers. However, her legacy was not to be forgotten as she began her new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on Cable TV in 2011. 

Unfortunately, the take off of her new network caused a nervous breakdown as the network “OWN wasn’t where I wanted it to be at the time,” (Oprah Winfrey, 2013). The numbers of viewers during prime hours were at a low of 250,000, contrasting the 12.6 million from when her show was on ABC. This caused retrenchment at OWN, laying off numerous people and cancelling some new talk shows. Winfrey humbly regrets the loss of employees.

But what could be the catalyst to the decrease of viewers? It could be analyzed that possibly it was their market that had shrunk intensely. During her showtimes on ABC television, a channel easily accessible to anyone with a television, the majority of viewers could be said to be primarily housewives of the working-class or middle-class families. This being said, when the change to a cable network shrunk their market size, the market shifted from not only working class households and higher-income families, but to specifically the families that could afford cable television that included the distinct OWN channel. Perhaps moving to this network was not the best choice of Oprah’s, but numbers of viewers have been steadily increasing despite the retrenchment from before, offering hope to OWN.

Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-20/layoffs-are-latest-blow-for-oprahs-cable-empire

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/oprah-winfrey-admits-she-had-a-nervous-breakdown-over-struggling-network-2013209