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Chalk up two more gut- punches for Oprah Winfrey and her staggering OWN cable network.
Following news that Jenny McCarthy has taken her planned Harpo-produced talk show elsewhere — possibly to NBC — comes word that oprah.com, Winfrey’s main contribution to OWN, has lost half its readership since “Oprah” left the air in May.
Oprah.com, which Winfrey gave to Discovery Communications as her half of their partnership in starting OWN, was down nearly 50 percent in site visits last month, according to siteanalytics.compete.com.
That reflects the period following Winfrey’s departure from broadcast TV after the May 25 finale of “Oprah” — which apparently is no longer driving the show’s millions of viewers to Winfrey’s Web site.
Hitting closer to home is McCarthy’s defection from the Winfrey camp.
McCarthy, one of Winfrey’s close pals, was developing a syndicated talk show for Harpo but has pulled up stakes and is now shopping the show around, according to foxnews.com.
“Jenny finally decided to embrace Oprah’s philosophy, which is to ‘follow your bliss,’ ” a source told foxnews.com. “Well, Jenny followed her bliss and walked right off the project.”
One possible destination for McCarthy’s show is NBC, according to the report. “We do not comment on projects in development,” a network spokeswoman said yesterday.
It’s possible that, had McCarthy stuck with Harpo, her talk show could have landed on OWN, which desperately needs original programming.
“Harpo Studios was working with Jenny McCarthy to develop a potential syndicated series,” a Harpo spokesman told The Post yesterday.
“The parties mutually agreed several months ago not to move forward with the project.”
OWN was never developing a show with her,” an industry insider said of McCarthy.
Some think that, at this point, OWN can only afford one talk show — the daytime series it’s building around Rosie O’Donnell, which is scheduled to launch this fall.
Earlier this year, OWN abandoned plans for a Mark Burnett-produced talk show modeled on “The View.”
McCarthy’s rep did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.
OWN, which launched amid much fanfare in January, has struggled ever since, failing to reach the numbers of its predecessor, Discovery Health, while going through a number of executive changes at the top.
Winfrey, who promised to become more involved in OWN once “Oprah” ended, will host a show on her network called “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” which is slated to air several times a week.