New ‘O’ show a bid to up ratings

Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is set to debut a new show on Sunday.

TALK show queen Oprah Winfrey is set to debut a new show on Sunday in her latest bid to revive spluttering ratings at the cable network she launched with great fanfare a year ago.

Oprah’s Next Chapter will be Winfrey’s first regular series since she ended her Oprah

Winfrey Show in May. It will showcase the TV star travelling around the US, and occasionally abroad, interviewing “real people, newsmakers, celebrities and thought leaders,” according to a press release.

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler will feature in the first episode. Visits to a Hasidic family in Brooklyn, a transcendental meditation centre in Iowa and even a tour of India with self-help guru Deepak Chopra are planned for future instalments.

The preview reel also showed a meeting with Star Wars creator George Lucas at his Skywalker Ranch, a fishing adventure with chef Paula Deen and firewalking with inspirational speaker Tim Robbins.

“Let’s just say we’re not sitting on those chairs no more, people,” Winfrey said, referring to the studio-bound format that was her recipe for success for 25 years on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

The show will be the cornerstone of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which has struggled to attract viewers since it was launched at the start of the year with a reported investment of $250 million (more than R2 billion). According to Nielsen ratings, the channel has averaged just 136 000 viewers a day. – Sapa-dpa