Oprah Winfrey, Kate Gosselin, Mike Tyson and Others Bring Star Power to Discovery Upfront - Ed Martin - MediaBizBloggers

Okay, I'll admit it: I was hoping that the highlight of Discovery Communications' star-powered Upfront presentation last Thursday would turn out to be Sarah Palin, eagerly promoting her upcoming TLC series Sarah Palin's Alaska. Political preferences aside, the celebrities who appear at network Upfront events are rarely as polarizing as she is, and Palin's presence would have ensured that advertisers and journalists would be talking about this particular event for years to come.

Sadly, Palin appeared only in a taped pitch for her show, which appears to be a love letter to the state she calls home and doesn't look half bad. (The credit for that goes to the executive producer of the series, Mark Burnett.) But even without her, the Discovery event proved historic in its own right. It opened with a lengthy appearance by one of the most influential people on the planet, Oprah Winfrey, on hand to reveal the most comprehensive details to date about her new network, OWN, set to launch on January 1, 2011. (To put it another way, that's the date on which Discovery Health will transition to The Oprah Winfrey Network.)

When Oprah took the stage it seemed as though the assemblage of advertisers, journalists and Discovery producers and executives at the Frederick P. Rose Hall in Lincoln Center was instantly transformed into a rabidly enthusiastic audience from her syndicated talk show. Of course, Oprah knows how to supercharge a room, and she did so by announcing several new series that would debut during OWN's first year. (At least ten others had been previously announced.) They included Gayle King Live!, a live daily telecast of Oprah's best friend's radio talk show; a reality competition series from Mark Burnett with the self-explanatory title Your Own Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star; and an observational reality series about the emotional struggles faced by Shania Twain, one of the best-selling female artists in country music history, as she moves past a very painful divorce. (The title of this show is Why Not? With Shania Twain, but I couldn't help thinking Why, Shania, Why? Does a star of Ms. Twain's magnitude really need to do this?)

Tellingly, Oprah's biggest announcement of the day was that after her daily talk show concludes in May 2011 she will continue interviewing celebrities and others on a new program titled Oprah's Next Chapter, in which she will talk with people not in a studio setting but from a wide range of locations, including her own homes. Oprah excitedly noted that some of her chats would be conducted in her very own teahouse.

Oprah is one of the toughest acts anyone or anything could follow, but the dizzying array of program presentations from most of the Discovery networks (including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Planet Green, ID: Investigation Discovery and Military Channel) proved collectively powerful and a very effective celebration of Discovery Communications' 25^th anniversary. Among the highlights were appearances by Mike Tyson, on hand to promote his new Animal Planet series Taking on Tyson, in which the boxing legend, a life-long pigeon enthusiast, explores the world of pigeon racing, and the increasingly controversial Kate Gosselin, late of the TLC reality drama Jon & Kate Plus 8 and currently a tabloid target because of her marital issues and her fantastically bad performances (especially in her rehearsal footage) on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Gosselin dashed to New York after appearing on the DWTS results show the night before to introduce two new projects: A series of specials under the banner title Kate Plus 8 featuring Kate and her kids and a new series titled Twist of Kate in which she will get to know and offer help to harried parents. (The seemingly tireless if somewhat stiff Gosselin worked the Discovery after-party like a pro.)

While celebrities of Winfrey's and Tyson's caliber always generate interest in programming with which they are involved, the real attraction to the series and specials on all of the Discovery networks has always been the root topics they explore, from unusual animals to advances in science to wilderness adventures to the diverse accomplishments of everyday people. Accordingly, Discovery Channel concluded the afternoon's lengthy presentation with what will certainly prove to be the most exciting program announcements of the year. They included a five-year, 60-episode series conceived by Discovery founder John Hendricks titled Curiosity: The Questions of Life that will address basic questions facing mankind today, such as whether or not time travel and the colonization of other planets are possible. Hendricks described Curiosity as "the most ambitious project we have ever undertaken." Other standouts were a follow-up to the high-definition marvels Planet Earth and Life titled Human Planet, and Reign of the Dinosaurs, another of those CGI dinosaur extravaganzas that Discovery does so well.

Discovery's Chief Operating Officer Peter Liguori closed the show by asking everyone to reach under their seats and retrieve envelopes containing what had to be the coolest 3D glasses ever made. (Grievously, we were asked to leave them on our seats when we exited the room.) We then watched promotional clips for Discovery's upcoming 3D channel that weren't nearly as stunning as what we have already come to expect at the multiplex but were striking nevertheless. I want to see more 3D-TV, especially from Discovery.