Business

Oprah’s groove is back

The book club is back; so are the blockbuster celebrity interviews. A reality show from La Toya Jackson about her life and her family is on the horizon. And of course TV catnip Kim Kardashian has helped draw viewers.

Life is good again for Oprah Winfrey.

The uplifting self-help stuff? Still around, but it’s taking a back seat to the ratings grabbers.

Insiders at OWN say Oprah has learned to respect what the audience wants to see as part of what she has called the “climb” of her life.

During the channel’s TV upfront, she said: “I am climbing Kilimanjaro, and it’s all on Wilshire Boulevard at the OWN offices.”

And insiders can sense the change. “Oprah has learned it’s a balance,” said a source. “It can’t be 100 percent chocolate or 100 percent vegetables. There is still self-help too, but it has to be wrapped in more of an entertainment filter.”

Things are looking better since the talk diva begged Twitter followers with Nielsen boxes to tune in.

Total day viewership has risen from 52,000 in 2011 to 66,000 now in the target 25-to-54-year-old women’s demographic, according to Nielsen. In primetime, she’s attracting 310,000 total viewers, which is up slightly from 280,000 last year.

OWN’s recent performance suggests there are some sighs of relief at Discovery Communications’ Bethesda, Md., headquarters. Discovery owns half of OWN and has invested about $330 million in the channel, according to reports.

There is no doubt that what viewers want to see on OWN is Oprah.

Her Sunday sit-downs with the likes of Rihanna this month are luring millions of women. Rihanna drew 2.5 million viewers, second only to Oprah’s exclusive with Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Christina, which had 3.5 million viewers.

“I think she’s having more fun and not taking herself or the network so seriously,” said one source, “but she has an unshakable view of what the OWN brand is.”

Around the corner are some new carriage negotiations, but the network will go into the black in the back half of 2013 thanks to its affiliate agreements, most recently with Comcast. OWN is getting paid about 20 cents a month per subscriber, according to sources. That’s more than long-established channels like HGTV receive. OWN is in 85 million households.

Discovery says its top advertisers are back, in part due to Oprah’s enduring selling power and her social-media presence on Twitter and Facebook.

Ad buyer Marc Morse says, “They overpromised, and it was a disaster, and they came back, and things have got a bit better the last couple of months. Oprah has been doing one-on-one interviews, and I think things are improving.”