Oprah Winfrey Network

Oprah Winfrey Network

OWN, or the Oprah Winfrey Network, is an American television network. It started on January 1, 2011. It replaced the Discovery Health Channel, which merged with FitTV to become Discovery Life. OWN is a joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery and Harpo Productions. It was founded by the famous television personality Oprah Winfrey.

The network focuses on lifestyle shows for a female audience. These shows talk about improving life, relationships, and spirituality. It especially aims to reach African Americans. Over time, Discovery increased its ownership of OWN. By December 2020, Discovery owned 95% of OWN. Harpo still kept a smaller share, and Oprah Winfrey continued to work with the channel.

OWN competes with other networks that also target African Americans. These include the BET Media Group's BET channel and Bounce TV from the E. W. Scripps Company. As of February 2015, OWN reached about 81.9 million households in the United States that had pay television.

History

Development

In 2007, David Zaslav, the new CEO of Discovery Communications, saw that the Discovery Health channel was not doing well. He wanted to work with Oprah Winfrey to make a new channel. In January 2008, Discovery and Harpo Productions announced they would work together to relaunch Discovery Health as "OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network" by late 2009.

Oprah would help lead the channel, talking about topics like health, love, parenting, and spirituality. Discovery put in $100 million, and Harpo gave access to its library and Oprah’s website, Oprah.com. At first, Oprah’s talk show could not be shown on OWN because of other agreements, but there were plans for new shows later.

Delays and launch

The start of OWN was pushed from 2009 to January 1, 2011. Lisa Erspamer, a Harpo leader, became the chief creative officer of OWN in November 2009. That same month, Oprah said her talk show would end in 2011 after 25 seasons. With the end of her talk show, Oprah agreed to be in at least 70 hours of shows each year on OWN.

OWN officially started on January 1, 2011. Discovery Health’s shows joined FitTV, which later became Discovery Fit & Health and then Discovery Life.

Early struggles, targeting African Americans

In its first year, OWN had trouble getting many viewers. Most shows did not get many watchers except for “Our America with Lisa Ling” and “Season 25: Oprah Behind The Stages.” In May 2011, Christina Norman left as CEO, and Peter Liguori took over for a time. By July, Oprah became CEO and named Sheri Salata as co-president.

In October 2011, “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” became popular, especially with African American viewers. This made OWN focus more on this group. “Super Soul Sunday” also started in October 2011, sharing different ideas about life today.

“The Rosie Show,” hosted by Rosie O’Donnell, started in October 2011 but did not get many viewers and was stopped in March 2012.

Tyler Perry development deal, expansion into scripted programming

In October 2012, OWN announced a deal with Tyler Perry to make scripted shows. In May 2013, Perry’s first two shows, the soap opera “The Haves and the Have Nots” and the sitcom “Love Thy Neighbor,” started. “The Haves and the Have Nots” became OWN’s most-watched show at the time.

By July 2013, OWN was starting to make money. In May 2016, “Greenleaf” and “Queen Sugar” started and became very popular. In July 2017, Tyler Perry stopped working with OWN, but his shows kept airing on the network.

OWN kept growing, sharing different stories and experiences of African Americans. In June 2020, Oprah hosted a special about important social issues. In December 2020, Discovery bought more of OWN. In May 2025, OWN was taken off some TV lists.

Programming

Main article: List of programs broadcast by Oprah Winfrey Network

As of 2025, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) showed many types of shows about everyday life. You could watch talks and court shows like Dr. Phil, Hot Bench, and Judge Mathis. It also showed other lifestyle shows.

In 2012, OWN began showing made-up stories, or scripted shows. It worked with Tyler Perry to start shows like The Haves and the Have Nots and Love Thy Neighbor. Later, it showed Queen Sugar, a story about a family, and Greenleaf, about a big church family in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2026, OWN started a new show called Maxxed Out, where host Leah Collins helps families manage their money better.

International

In Canada, a channel called Twist TV replaced Discovery Health, but another company called Corus Entertainment started a Canadian version of OWN in 2011. This channel closed in 2024 because Corus lost the rights to many shows. In 2025, a new company called Rogers Sports and Media got the rights and moved OWN's content to their service called Citytv+.

OWN also showed programs in other countries. In the United Kingdom, TLC UK began showing some OWN shows in 2013. Australia started showing them on Discovery Home & Health in 2013. South Africa began in 2013, and Poland, Russia, and some Balkan countries started showing OWN programs later that year. Oprah Winfrey planned to bring OWN to Brazil and Argentina in 2011.