Oprah and her execs over at the struggling OWN cable network are rethinking programming strategy to appeal more to her African American audience.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, execs at OWN are taking note of the success of “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s,” a “docuseries” (reality show) starring the 71-year-old owner-operator of a soul food restaurant in St. Louis. The show is OWN’s top-rated prime time offering, averaging an audience of around 420,000.
“Sweetie Pies” is performing especially well with African American viewers.
“Anytime you have a program that pops like ‘Sweetie Pie’s’ did, you start looking for what drove it,” said Erik Logan, OWN’s president. “We saw that the African-American audience really had a connection with that show. We’re going to look at ways to nurture and grow that.”
Although OWN has struggled to find a firm footing with cable viewers since launching in January, not everyone thinks the former queen of daytime television talk should try targeting a black audience for ratings.
Tuna Amobi, a Standard & Poor’s media consultant, has a warning for O. “Oprah is a brand that goes far beyond the African-American market,”Amobi said. “I don’t know that it would be a good thing for OWN to so narrowly define its target.”
Logan says OWN is looking to strike a balance, and is “not going to sell out and just chase one demographic or segment.”
Pump the brakes. Did he actually say Oprah would be “selling out” to provide programming that is more appealing to a black demographic? Um, somebody might want to sit that guy down and explain to him the cultural connotations of the term “sellout,” and then remind him that his boss is black. –kathleen cross
