Writing at BlackAmericaWeb, Michael H. Cottman says it's no coincidence that a show about an African-American family has boosted the ratings for Oprah's cable network.
Sweetie Pie's is saving Oprah Winfrey's television network.
Actually, a more strategic effort to offer exclusive black programming is significantly boosting ratings for OWN, Winfrey's struggling two-year-old network that has caused major headaches for executives of Discovery Communications, the company that leveraged a reported $300 million to get OWN up and running.
But today, OWN is undergoing a diverse television transformation and the numbers indicate that more black folks are watching OWN simply because Oprah has more black folks on the network to watch.
This is no coincidence …
So why didn't Oprah get with the black programming concept from the beginning?
In hindsight, it's perhaps the best decision she has made to salvage her network. And she's combining old-school programming with a state-of-the-art network.
Read Michael H. Cottman's entire piece at BlackAmericaWeb.
The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.
DISCUSSION