Was Rosie O’Donnell behind the Oprah net work’s decision to dump the long-in-the-works Mark Burnett talk show?
The talk-show queen’s fledgling cable channel suddenly scrapped plans this week for an expensive daily morning show, which was being developed by the “Survivor” producer and featured his wife, “Touched by an Angel” star Roma Downey.
“We have to be really smart about what goes on our air and when,” OWN CEO Christina Norman said announcing the move.
The start-up network, already saddled with lackluster ratings, also needs to keep an eye on its purse strings.
And word is that it was just too expensive to produce both the Burnett show and a new daily show starring O’Donnell.
Rosie has told fans that her program will be taped in New York before a live studio audience and will likely debut in September.
Rosie’s salary alone will be in excess of $4 million, say sources.
Another challenge of juggling two high-profile talk shows: guests.
“Between late-night and daytime talk shows, you can’t just do a show and assume bookings,” one industry insider says. “It’s a bitch, especially if the shows are similar in who they want to book.
“I would say this was a conscious choice not to do these two shows due to potential bookings and topical conflicts.”
It is estimated that OWN — which was financed by Discovery Networks, not Oprah’s own fortune — has already burned through more than $110 million of its $189 million in start-up funds, in part by producing then scrapping expensive pilots.
“We recognize it is going to take a while to find a voice,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav told The Los Angeles Times. “But we have an advantage, because we know what that voice is going to be.”
OWN’s current daytime lineup includes low-cost fare like “The Best of Trading Spaces,” “Cristina Ferrare’s Big Bowl of Love” and “The Gayle King Show,” which merely films Oprah’s best friend hosting her radio show.
None are delivering big numbers and, according to sources who work closely with OWN, plans are to beef up the King show.
Word is the network is looking to hire a sidekick for Gayle — or bring in more producers to help lift the show out of its bare-bones, “radio on TV” format.
Burnett’s show, which had been slated for a March debut, was trying for months to find the right hosts — but could not get OWN to agree.