14 DAY TRIAL // For months now, there's been a lot of talk about how OWN, or the Oprah Winfrey Network, turned out to be one of the most resounding failures in television. Oprah herself is the first to admit to that: she was wrong to have launched it when she did.
As must be common knowledge, Oprah put an end to her longtime, successful show to forge plans for the launch of her own network, OWN.
In recent weeks, it became clearer than ever that she was struggling hard to get it off the ground: just as she'd been successful before with her talk show, she was having serious trouble getting people to tune in to the programs on her network.
In an interview with CBS This Morning, Oprah admits to the mistake, saying she would do things differently if given another chance.
Launching OWN when she did was a mistake because she and the network weren't ready, Oprah says, stressing that she doesn't regret going down this path – but just the timing of it.
Video of this segment of the interview is below.
“I didn't think it was going to be easy. If I knew then what I know now, I might have made some different choices,” Oprah says.
Her good friend Gayle King co-hosted the show, so one may assume it was easier for her to open up in this circumstance.
“If I were writing a book about it, I could call it 101 Mistakes,” the television personality adds.
“It was like having the wedding before you were ready, and walking down the aisle saying, 'Oooh, should we really be doing this?'” Oprah explains.
Right now, she's focusing all efforts of rebuilding the network from scratch to help it finally get off the ground.
According to recent reports, this includes letting go lots of people, Rosie O'Donnell included. Her show wasn't picked up for a second season because of disappointing ratings.
