Has she jumped the shark?Oprah's gotten too serious. She's just not a lot of fun. The topics are too ponderous, like Dr. Oz scaring us about health issues, or experts talking about hoarding and clutter, or some other psychological ailment that's equally bizarre. Then there was all the stuff about the school in South Africa and the book club author who was a liar. Sorry, it was all a downer. Then, a jump the shark moment, Oprah presented the pregnant man.
The urge to surf
If you've spent a sick day or two at home in the afternoon, you know that there's a lot more stuff to watch these days than there used to be. The cable revolution has resulted in choice galore. When Oprah's show comes on, whatever the time slot, Food Network has cooking shows, ESPN has sports, CNN has news, Bravo has repeats of Project Runway or one of their other primetime shows, Biography has biographies, and on and on.
The New Age angle
One theory put forth about Oprah's decline is that she's embraced too much New Age/personal power/the spirit within me/the secret philosophy -- to the extent that she's coming off as anti-Christian.
Time's up
Maybe Oprah has overstayed her welcome. She's been on the air for 22 years. That's a very long time. Oprah has made noises about giving up the show and concentrating on other endeavors, but she's still at it. There's a lot to be said about knowing when to leave. In show business parlance, it's known as leaving them wanting more. If Oprah had ended her show after 20 years, she wouldn't be in this situation now. She could have ended the show on a high.
Politics
Okay, maybe her endorsement of Obama has made a difference. It probably wasn't Barack himself, but the fact that Oprah has been non-political for years, or at least very discreet. This was the first time she injected herself into a political race and that might have turned some people off.
Too much commercialism
Her My Favorite Things shows are huge, for sure. Free stuff for the folks in the studio audience, big commercials for the products. But in the days and weeks after the show airs we keep hearing and reading about those products online, on-air and in print. It just wreaked of commercialism. The same thing with the free car giveaway. They weren't free; it was an hour long commercial for Pontiac.
*TV blog TV Squad
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1 comment:
Oprah has lost her audience because she is an easy target for those who feel that the media decides the presidency and does not respect the people's right to decide for themselves. I just heard something on the radio that showed that a great portion of the Palin interview with Charlie Gibson was cut-out and left on the cutting room floor. What was cut made Sarah sound very intellectual but was left out of what we saw on TV. This makes us upset.
We agree when Sarah is questioned vigorously about her lack of experience. We are OK with that. But then we wait to hear the same thing asked of Obama and it never happens. Obama is not asked about Ayers. Obama is not hit with the questions about if he is really a Christian, why doesn't the name Jesus never come up in your church's sermons.
For that matter, why is Sarah put down for waiting one week to do an interview. Even though she is a governor, has a daughter who is getting married, just saw her son get shipped off to war, had a Down Syndrome son, and had to quickly prepare for the biggest day for the VP pick as far as responsibility is concerned.
Obama took over one and one-half year to be in an interview with O'Reily and O'Reily didn't cut out any of his responses and only was given one-half of an hour to ask his questions.
Why doesn't the media get upset when Obama put a note on the Wall in Israel that says he wants to do God's will, but attacks Palin when she says the same thing when asked?
We would like to make a good decision but continually see a difference in the way these two candidates are treated. I don't think this is helping Obama. I am sure he must be upset that his numbers are slipping.
Why doesn't the media harp about Biden's son being a lobbyist, and the corruption that this relationship brings? Yet, Sarah is called a hypocrite even though she cut earmarks by more than half from her predecessor.
Oprah is only one of many helping Obama and keeping the citizens at bay. It is this "insider" mentality that says "hush, hush we know better what is good for the country."
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