On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 1:23 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > The above was HuffPo's headline for the video clip of today's > installment. It is a stupid headline. Oprah tears up at the drop of a > hat. It would be more newsworthy to announce a clip of Oprah NOT > crying about something.
The popularity of Oprah is for me the most opaque and stunning of all of pop culture mysteries. I don't find anything remotely interesting or appealing about the vampire movies, or professional wrestling, or reality shows, or conservative scare shows, but with a little empathic imagination I can at least see why others like them. I have talked with dozens of family members, friends and acquaintances over the years, and I have never been able to find any kind of handle or entry point into Oprah's appeal. Clearly she has appeal (I was criticizing her in class a couple of weeks ago and a student literally started tearing up while defending her) but I lack the sensory organ to detect it. I was surprised to learn through the coverage today that her show is distributed by CBS, which seems odd since I am pretty sure her program is on the ABC stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco, unless that has changed in the last couple of years. When I assumed she worked for ABC I was wondering if they might try a little Leno-type counter programming experiment and have Oprah do a 10:00 pm talk show 2 or 3 times a week. I read that she averages 6.8M viewers per show, which is about 33% more viewers than Leno is getting right now. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
