Good news! Oprah misses us as much as we miss her daily talk show.
The OWN creator and media mogul revealed that she does miss having a daily connection to audiences. So to heal her pain, Oprah said she’s planning a speaking tour.
“That’s what I see in the future, in terms of my connection to an audience,” Oprah told New York Magazine. “I don’t think I will ever be sitting in front of an audience again doing a show like Oprah. The truth is, I really don’t miss trying [to do a show] every day.”
Oprah says what took up most of her time was the business aspect of having your own show. “I don’t miss that,” she said. “But I do miss the day-to-day connection. When you tell 10 million people about something about which you are enthusiastic, and they trust you, you can get a million people to respond. I miss that immediate direct access. So I now do it through Twitter.”
And although she’s not on TV daily, she’s learned about people’s TV-watching habits. All of which has helped shape the network’s current light-hearted programming. “I have a tendency to look at everything from the point of view of: What is going to be meaningful, and uplift people? That can become too stoic and too serious.”
As for Oprah’s new network schedule filled with comedies and dramas, she thinks it’s good. “I’m interested in doing no harm,” said Oprah. “Before, it was always, I’ve got to uplift as well as entertain. And now I can look at a thing and say, ‘What harm does it do?’ And harm is not just violence and calling people bitches. It’s the tone of things.”