First of all, dear friends, let me apologise for my recent hiatus from the EU blog - an inexcusable oversight on my part, but it was simply due to having too many things to do in some of my various other pursuits in life, leaving me in the rather unheard of condition of feeling like I had little or nothing to say. Rejoice, some might say! ;)
But in these situations, I find that the best thing to do is say nothing, go away, and let the well fill up once more. Sage advice for some, perhaps, which leads me to a certain very prominent individual who has spent the greater part of her career doling out advice - of course we are talking about the media giant known as Oprah Winfrey - who has moved on from not only hosting the most successful daytime talk show in TV history, but to actually having her own TV network.
At the time she commenced this new venture and chapter in her life/career, I felt that the OWN Network was little more than an example of her increasing hubris, somehow transposing her individual success on a one hour afternoon talk show to being at the helm of a network charged with outputting 24/7 programming that people want to watch, week after week. Why in God's name would she want that, with more money than God and almost equal fame? Why not just either retire and go enjoy life, or find another realistic outlet that is not going to further eat away at your personal life?
Oprah had not practiced what she had preached, a lot of the time, and was run ragged at various stages of her life in Chicago even when she had experienced enormous success. She preached the gospel of finding balance in life, to her flock, but in many ways her own life was a total mess. She was overeating, overweight and exhausted. Tell me people, what's the point of having all that money and fame, if you are as unhappy as she clearly was at various points? Furthermore, why would you take advice from some talking head, and treat it as divine gospel just because they are on TV, even when there is clear evidence that they don't follow that advice, themselves?
That always bothers me. The fake righteous (in many formats) preaching this or that, while behind the scenes they are guilty of much worse than those they preach to - one has to take it all with a pinch of salt, or better, don't listen to them. At all. They are far from being the mentors or educators they self-appoint themselves to be - and that has included Oprah Winfrey, in my book. Enjoy the show, have a laugh, agree with some points, disagree with other, but a saint she surely wasn't and I bet most of us had way more balance and health in our lives than even she did.
Perhaps ultimately, a lot of the time Ms. Winfrey was actually preaching to herself as much as us? In any case, taking on OWN was surely testament to unending personal ambition or her destiny, depending on who is doing the talking. It clearly was quite a daunting challenge, and it didn't take long for the pressure to build and for the cracks to begin to show. It's one thing to have been able to handle the task of choosing great content for a one hour show with a support cast of hundreds backing you up, to deftly coming up with a whole slew of varied programming all chock full of that same great content, 24 hours a day.
To her credit, when the s**t hit the fan, Oprah admitted that had she known what she was getting herself into later on, she would not have done it. The network was hemorrhaging cash at certain points, with estimated losses as high as almost $150M annually, due to exorbitant costs of failed programming and severance payments to those laid off. Executives at Discovery, who were joint partners in the venture (with Winfrey's company Harpo), were far from happy and had failed to recoup a penny of their $300M investment, prompting many to speculate that Harpo was going to be asked to put more of Oprah's cash into the game.
I did see some of the questionable programming, which rather astoundingly included the Trumpster's TV nemesis, Rosie O'Donnell, and quite what Oprah was thinking is beyond me. No doubt, it truly was a case of Oprah seeing the good in the bad, and attempting to help Rosie find her way back to TV, but you know, some people just cannot (or won't) be helped, and it was an error. Clearly.
The Rosie show was as big a loser as the Trumpster claimed she herself is, and while I will refrain from concurring on that, I will say that her star has faded enormously, not least due to her abrasive personality, and I don't know why any TV network would hire that potential headache with so much varied and real talent to choose from today. A show about Shania Twain, and how she dealt with the heartbreak of her husband having an affair with her best friend, in part, by then taking up with said best friend's ex-hubby, sounded more like General Hospital than anything remotely inspirational. From what little I saw, I actually came away feeling that Shania Twain was way weirder than any of us had ever realised, and was not quite the got-it-all-together role model she had been portrayed as, often.
Quite why Winfrey put herself through such a nightmare was beyond me - isn't there a point where enough money and fame and power suffices? What made her believe that having led a one hour talk show was credentials enough to be the CEO and creative director of an entire network? She certainly is far from modest in many ways, and often comes across sounding as if she co-created modern culture single-handedly, so it probably didn't take too many sycophantic "you can do it, girl!" comments to persuade her to drink the Kool-Aid and buy into it.
Eventually, it became clear that there was only one thing to do to save the network - she herself was going to have to step back in front of the camera. Why? Well, because, she is the one that they all want to see, the one with the biggest TV brand and audience, and perhaps the most talented of any of the other talking heads running around TV today. We have Oprah telling us how to be our best selves, Dr. Oz telling us what to eat to be healthy, and Dr. Phil telling us how to run (not ruin) our relationships, and the advice just never stops coming.
I often wonder that if people spent a lot less time sitting around with tissues moaning about their lives, in some abhorrently (to me) termed "teachable moment", then maybe we would all need a lot less of them? The teachable moments, that is. It's all so touchy-feely and "aha!" that it can be quite nauseating, I am afraid. Do the talking heads truly believe that we are all as dumb as they apparently assume we are, or is it just an act to get a room full of women to show up for a TV show chock full of "teachable moments"? Cue the tissues and the camera zooms into those dripping eyes! A nation is watching, listening, and learning - we are educators, people! Yawn.
But unquestionably, with Oprah back in the form of "Oprah's Next Chapter" and "Oprah's Masterclass", things have stabilised somewhat. She is the talent after all, and she can draw the crowds and boost the ratings, in a way that an ol' Rosie or a quirky Shania never could. In fact, I was going to write this blog about my feelings on a couple of episodes I did bump into of the big O's Masterclass, recently, but at over a dozen paragraphs as an intro - well, maybe I can save that for the next blog?!
So you see? Sometimes it's when one has been feeling that one has nothing left to say, that the well fills up again out of the blue, and one is suddenly renewed and newly reinvigorated once more. Hmm, is that a teachable moment?! Tee hee. I think it's best to leave it at that, and head over to my coffee machine for a silky Emperor's Blend Dark Choco Espresso Allonge, which is en essential part of any Sunday morning musings. Until next time, it's great to be back, y'all! - Kevin Mc
