Oprah Winfrey won’t be hosting her own talk show on OWN, her new cable network launching in 2011.
“Her show as you know it is not coming to OWN,” the network’s CEO, Christina Norman, told USA Today.
“She’s going to have a significant presence on this network,” but won’t be doing a cable version of “Oprah,” Norman says.
Winfrey announced last month she’s leaving “Oprah” in Sept. 2011 to focus on OWN, which will launch in January of that year.
“Pieces of that show [‘Oprah’] we’re going to want to find ways to retain, but I don’t think the format exists in anyone’s mind right now,” Norman says.
OWN was originally scheduled to premiere around now, and was then pushed to a mid-2010 launch before the January 2011 date was announced along with Winfrey’s final “Oprah.”
“At its core, [the network] will always be about this notion of self-discovery,” Norman says.
“It’s not going to be spinach.”
The new network has announced only a few shows hosted by “Oprah” regular Lisa Ling, sex therapist Laura Berman, Winfrey’s pal Gayle King and professional organizer Peter Walsh (“Clean Sweep“), who’s also an “Oprah” regular.
Winfrey herself will narrate a profile series called “Master Class.”