Ed Martin Live at TCA: OWN's Rosie O'Donnell Makes a Splash at TCA – And Oprah Does Pretty Well, Too

Ed Martin is reporting daily from the Television Critics Association tour exclusively for Jack Myers Media Business Report subscribers His weekly report will continue to appear at MediaBizBloggerscomThere were several compelling panels during the cable portion of the Summer 2011 Television Critics Association tour but only one came excitingly to life in the way that many TCA panels used to with some frequency back in the days when they were largely populated with veteran stars and producers who had stories to tell rather than newcomers with little to sayThe TCA firework was none other than former daytime personality Rosie O39Donnell on hand to promote her upcoming nightly talk and entertainment show on OWN O39Donnell you39ll recall flamed out near the end of her syndicated daytime series and famously ended her tenure on The View after a particularly heated exchange with cohost Elisabeth Hasselbeck But all that seemed to be in the distant past when O39Donnell took the TCA stage For the most part the OWN O39Donnell reminded me of the Rosie who made the early years of her syndicated daytime series the most enjoyable feelgood talk show since the years of Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin rather than the opinionated loudmouth who hosted The View for a turbulent year and helped turn it into one of the most unpleasant viewing experiences of the last decadeI wasn39t alone in my response amp8211 O39Donnell won over most every critic and reporter in the room as she entertainingly revealed the details of her new show quotIt39s going to be different from the old show in that when I was 33 I think the appeal of my program was there was an authentic genuine appreciation of pop culturequot she cheerfully explained quotI loved these people like Barbra Streisand and Tom Cruise The concept that I could meet them was really beyond my belief and now I39m 50 and both of those people have stayed in my house right So the enthusiasm that I had for celebrities has changed I have evolved and grown and the show is going to be reflective of thatquotquotIt39s not going to be your average show where three celebrities come on promoting something like on Letterman and Regis and all those other showsquot she continued quotIt39s gonna be one celebrity per show and they39re going to have something to talk about and want to come and play and have a fun kind of 60 minutes together and there will be an upfront part like your standard late night fare where I39ll do my kind of comedy I39m not a monologist I will do what I do with refillable bits We39ll have some audience segments and we39re gonna end with a fun refillable different game every timequot I may be overreacting here but it looks as though quotrefillablequot is going to become one of those strange words that only people in television use like quotwheelhousequot or quotfunnyquot as a noun Wait for itThere were times during the panel when it was clear that the headline making O39Donnell still lurks beneath the newly calm and funny O39Donnell as when one reporter asked if her activism on a number of issues might become a part of the new showquotWe39re going to have a controversy segmentquot she answered with a straight face to a smattering of nervous laughter quotNo we39re notquot she continued to a much louder responseThen it was O39Donnell39s turn to laugh quotLook at you all typing 39Controversial segment Send39quotWe39re notquot she repeated with a caveat quotBut amp8230 if we were on in the last few months I39m sure that we would have had someone talking with me one day perhaps about the fascination with the Casey Anthony trial because as a child advocate my whole life and career I don39t really understand why the media and the nation focused on this one child when there are many children killed and tortured every day I don39t know why this one became the kind of news driver that it did and I would like to approach that from a sociological or an anthropological point of view as to why we as a culture consume media in the way we do So we39re not going to look for controversy but should it be germane to what39s happening in the world I39m sure we will bring up current eventsquotNot in a way like attacking Tom Selleck or anything because when you39ve done that once reallyamp8230quot O39Donnell joked again this time referring to her onair dustup with Selleck about the issue of gun control one of the unfortunate moments that brought her syndicated talk series to a sorry endO39Donnell did such an outsize job selling her series that some critics myself included felt she sold the entire network in the process Regardless her session was a big win for OWN In a smart publicity strategy she was introduced by Oprah Winfrey the newly selfappointed CEO of OWN who spoke briefly about upcoming plans for her network Winfrey39s was a surprise appearance the better to avoid a media feeding frenzy and a largely understated one In that capacity I think Winfrey did a better job of defining and promoting her network than in her somewhat overproduced and overlong appearance at the January 2011 TCA tour

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Ed Martin Live at TCA: OWN's Rosie O'Donnell Makes a Splash at TCA – And Oprah Does Pretty Well, Too

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"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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Ed Martin Live at TCA: OWN's Rosie O'Donnell Makes a Splash at TCA – And Oprah Does Pretty Well, Too

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