Featured Entertainment Stories
Nov 20, 2009 10:56 pm US/Central
Good Question: Will There Be Another Oprah?
(WCCO)
When Oprah Winfrey announced that she's leaving her syndicated television talk show in 2011, people immediately started talking about possible successors. But in the fractured media environment of today, is it even possible to have another Oprah?
Her national show debuted on Sept. 9, 1986. Cable television was still fairly new. The internet wasn't widely adopted. People were just moving from their Commodore 64s to their Apple IIGS.
Today, the internet is a major draw on people's time and attention. There are dozens of popular television channels. The idea of one transcending figure is questionable.
"Can we have a mega star like Oprah?" asked WCCO-TV reporter Jason DeRusha.
"Not strictly in the television genre, but we can have a mega media star, we indeed have a few of them," said John Rash, director of Media Analysis for Compass Point Media in Minneapolis.
"There are cultural and political and sociological figures who are able to dominate nearly every media form. So, it's not impossible to replicate her success, but boy, it's going to be hard," he added.
Rash pointed to President Barack Obama as an example of an individual who was able to cross many different platforms and have success in each of them, while he was a candidate.
Each week, Oprah draws about 42 million viewers. Local TV stations rely on that lead-in audience to help out afternoon newscasts. Plus, Oprah's book club turned authors into best-sellers. There may be no one media figure with her clout.
"The commercial conditions are more conducive than ever to have a pop culture figure have the same kind of impact as Oprah," said Rash, as all the new platforms have already been developed. Oprah had to transition through the rise of cable television and the internet.
But Rash wonders if culturally, our society is in a spot to accept an Oprah-like person.
"She was human, flawed, and yet held up on a pedestal for success," he said.
"The whole focus over the next 18 months will be on how do we find the next Oprah, but she invented herself, her persona, and generated a genre," said Rash. He cautioned, "The industry needs to innovate, not replicate."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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