Oprah Winfrey Network Struggling: Is Hubris Killing the Star?

Oprah may be learning the art of humility. She thought, perhaps, she had some kind of of silver sword after so many years of syndication success for her own show. Sure, many wanted to watch Winfrey. But would that carry over to shows she syndicated that don't feature her?

So far, not so good.

She apparently thought if her name was attached, everybody would want to watch. No matter if it weren't her own show. So she quit her syndicated show and launched her own network -- aptly named "OWN."

Oops.

Maybe it's not the same when it's not the "Oprah" show. So far with her new "OWN" network, Winfrey has learned that everything she touches is not gold. According to the Sun Times, the respected newspaper in Winfrey's home town of Chicago, when Winfrey was trying to set up cable and satellite deals in 2010 for her new cable network she thought, of course, if she showed up personally for pitch meetings with Comcast, America's largest cable provider, well, everything would be okay.

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Not so far, anyway.

The Sun Times reports via the "Hollywood Reporter" that Winfrey went to Comcast's headquarters in Philadelphia. The newspaper reports that Winfrey hoped that "a little Oprah magic would result in handsome fees for her joint venture with Discovery Communications. But according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting, Comcast executives not only rebuffed Winfrey but characterized her pitch as 'greedy' for an unproven network."

It goes like this:Oprah thought because she was Oprah, the very fact that she wanted to launch a network meant that it was a golden done deal. But it didn't happen that way. After the so-called rude awakening of the Comcast meeting, Winfrey reportedly didn't attend any other such meetings. Seems they weren't waiting for a "Best of" Oprah gift handout.

Now, as OWN struggles as the cable! network 's first anniversary approaches, Oprah has applied a new sense of urgency to making the network succeed, according to the Sun Times. She's launched a new weekly "interview" show. She's likely argued with Discovery, a partner in the venture, about the virtues of her network, which bet its soul in 2011 that a program about the mother-daughter duo once known as "The Judds" would be a hit, among other programs OWN said were hot.

Never mind that Wynonna, the daughter, is orange, and Naomi, the mother, comes off a bit insincere. Oprah thought the country music duo would have some of the same Southern appeal that she had for so many years on the air. But it didn't happen that way. Oprah's success on the air occurred because viewers beginning in Chicago, before spreading to a nationwide and then worldwide audience, felt she was the real deal.

Now, apparently, they think her OWN network is just another channel in a myriad of options.

And, it is so far beause channel surfers simply have so many options. For starters, the "Oprah" show was on lower-tiered channels in syndication for so many years.It helps when one is on channel 4 as opposed to channel 173, like Ophrah's OWN Network.

Also, Oprah isn't exactly in touch with mainstream America, after fame and one hundred gazillion dollars earned. She lives in a bubble, some say. And who could blam her? She's now a mega-millionaire; not exactly that small-town Mississippi girl who made it big.

"Oprah has a bubble she lives in," said one TV insider, according to the Sun Times. "She's not a fan of a lot of TV."

It was fine, of course, when she had the likes of Jay Z and James Frey at her footsteps on her own program. The world would tune in, daily. Converting that audience to higher-tiered channels without her daily and hourly clout is not so easy, however. Oprah's OWN Network is apparently losing money monthly at a healthy clip. Media reports suggest Discovery has pumped in $254 million above a $189 commitment.

Writes the Sun Times: "As losses mount, industry observers and some former insiders are starting to wonder how long Discovery or Winfrey will stay in the ambitious effort to make OWN fly."

The problem facing Oprah's OWN is clear. The network was a fledgling among many on higher-tiered cable channels. To succeed and break out of the pack, Oprah's Network had to create hours of original and unique programming almost overnight. Easier said that done, however. Sure, the Kardashians are a big hit. So was "Kate Plus Eight." But OWN has had someting different going on.

Where Oprah sought to inspire OWN's original shows seemed to cultivate despair.

Wrote the Los Angeles Times in a sub-headline in April of this year: "'The Judds' and 'Addicted to Food' have moments of promise, but the relentless sadness (and accompanying music) are too much."

From LA Times Television Critic Mary McNamara: "There is no joy in Juddville, which is not surprising because country music icons Naomi and Wynonna Judd are rolling out a reality show on OWN where fun is, apparently, just one more form of denial.

"When Oprah Winfrey announced she was starting her own network, she pledged that it would be a mean-free zone, a shelter from the snark, self-immolation and schadenfreude she believes is ravaging the television landscape. And so far, she has delivered.

"That does not mean OWN is a happy place. Oh no, my friends, oh no. Reality show after reality show reveals nothing but pain and misery: the sexless marriages, the emotionally abandoned children, the hoarding families, the endless army of Americans (mostly women) who lack self-esteem, self-control, self-respect. "Breaking Down the Bars" is about women in prison; "Our America With Lisa Ling" inevitably revolv! es aroun d some wrenching crisis or other; Oprah's website recently exhorted us to watch as Ling "explores an Ohio county ravaged by heroin addiction."

Ouch.

Her network has aired program such as "Addicted to Food," a play off of NBC's popular "The Biggest Loser" and a popular Oprah episode when she walked on stage in her syndicated program and carried a bag of lard to symbolize how much weight she herself had lost. But she had lower-tiered channels for that escapade, and so does NBC, airing "The Biggest Loser."

Low channel matters, whether TV wants to admit it or not. Sure, the Kardashians can break through, but not every program can. Most can't, in fact.

That's the thing about the crowded media space. Pundits want to say how NBC is dead but while the network is struggling it's far from dead. Consider only that most of America's 100 million TV households have NBC at its fingertips just as it had the Oprah show at its fingertips. The OWN Network, meanwhile, is a couple of hundred clicks away in most cases and Oprah's show can't be found.

According to the "Hollywood Reporter," OWN averaged "just 136,000 viewers per day, a decline of 8 percent compared to Discovery Health, the channel it replaced. Among women 18 to 49, OWN is down 12 percent."

Oprah's network is in trouble, whether she wants to admit it or not.