Oprah poised to launch OWN network

Oprah Winfrey's new cable television channel will make its debut at noon ET on Saturday in 85 million homes across the U.S.

Running the Oprah Winfrey Network OWN is a challenge the 56-year-old mediapowerhouse relishes as her syndicated talk show nears its finale on Sept. 9, 2011, after an influential 25-year-run.

But other challenges she'll take on will not include pursuing a career in politics.

The talk show host, who threw her clout behind Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, said she willnever seek political office. "Arrgghhh! The very idea of politics. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" she said in a recent interview at her home near Santa Barbara.

Politics is "having to live your life at the whim of somebody's polls," Winfrey said. "I just feel like there's so much more ability for me, personally, to be able to effect change and to be able to influence through stories and ideas than I could ever do in politics."

She hopes to see the Los Angeles-based OWN, over which she will preside as chair,establish itself as a "force for good," a platform that helps people "see the best of themselves" on a broader canvas than her daily Chicago-based talk show.

And what with running OWN and orchestrating a big finish for The Oprah Winfrey Show,Winfrey said it isunlikely that she will have time to devote to the Chicago mayoral bid of Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff.

But she did sign a petition to get his name on the February ballot when she was approached outside a Chicago gym.

Winfrey remains a steadfast supporter of Obama.

"He's doing a great job, and I don't use the term 'great' loosely," she said.

If, as itis expected, Obama seeks a second term in 2012, "I would do whatever they ask me to do," Winfrey said. "I'm open."

But she said she hasn't thought about how her new cable channel might figure in the U.S. national election.

"I'm really just trying to get on the air," she said. "I'm trying to think of the role OWN is going to play on Jan. 2, and the 3rd and the 4th."

A pop culture force with a daytime podium that at its peak attracted more than 12 million viewers (it's at nearly seven million this season), Winfrey has created careers and successful TV shows such as Dr. Phil, energized the publishing industry with her book club picks and produced distinguished films (Precious, The Great Debaters), breaking ethnic stereotypes along the way.

She is acutely aware of what she might be losing even as she stakes out newtelevision turf to promote ideas and celebrities. She was initially reluctant to surrender her daytime show, but "what I realized is the Oprah Whinfrey Show has had its time and its run and its ability to affect and influence, and that now it's time for something else," she said.

Mix of talk shows, reality shows

Rosie O'Donnell, Shania Twain, Sarah Ferguson and Winfrey's close pal, Gayle King, all have first-season shows on the commercially supported OWN, which will offer a mix of talk and reality shows, film acquisitions and original documentaries.

Included in the lineup are a cooking series with Cristina Ferrare, a sex advice show with Dr. Laura Berman, style makeovers with Carson Kressley, a series about the mother-daughter relationship of Naomi and Wynonna Judd, a "docu-reality" series about women prisoners in Indiana and the theatrical release Precious.

Winfrey's hand is on the entire schedule, and she'll be onstage in series such as Oprah's Next Chapter, in which she travels the world in search of interesting stories, and Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, a chronicle of her final talk show year.

She will also appear in the series Oprah Presents Master Class and Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star.

OWN will be programmed around the clock, with repeats filling overnight hours.

On the cusp of her new media adventure, a Harpo Inc. joint venture with Discovery Communications (which has reported a $189-million US commitment to the channel), Winfrey said she has shed any worries she had as OWN experienced an uneven and delayed gestation.

The channel starts with a modest base, taking over Discovery Health and its average 250,000 daily viewers. Among cable channels, heavyweights such as ESPN and USA average aboutthree million prime-time viewers.

"I'm not afraid at all. I talked to my friend Gayle this morning and she goes, 'You sure are calm for a girl who's going to launch a network,"' Winfrey said. "It's like preparing to run a marathon and then the week before you run, you have to relax yourself in order to be able to do the run."

Late this week, Winfrey visited OWN's Los Angeles offices for a final rally-the-troops meeting.

And then it's up to viewers who have so often approved of what Winfrey has given them. She hopes they'll be patient as OWN finds its footing.

"This is the beginning of a great opportunity to use television for purposeful programming, which is the only reason I'm doing it," she said.