Talk queen to move to nights on OWN
Oprah Winfrey has reigned in daytime for a quarter-century, but she’ll be moving to nights to host a show on her brand-new cable channel.
“Oprah’s New Chapter” is scheduled to premiere in late 2011 on the Oprah Winfrey Network, according to an announcement Thursday.
Each edition will release her from the studio and her longtime talk-show format for conversations and travel around the world.
“From the Taj Mahal to her beloved oak tree, the Great Wall to her own teahouse, it’s a whole new kind of Oprah show,” according to the network. “If she can dream it, she’ll do it!”
Other new shows announced Thursday for the Oprah Winfrey Network:
•“Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind,” in which big-name talents like director James Cameron, photographer Annie Leibovitz and singer Lady Gaga take viewers inside their creative process.
•“Your Own Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star,” produced with reality TV giant Mark Burnett.
•“Gayle King Live!,” bringing to television the morning radio show of Oprah’s best friend.
•“Why Not? With Shania Twain,” a reality show about the country music star.
Kate plus two new
Kate Gosselin is launching a series that will profile everyday women facing personal challenges.
“Twist of Kate” will follow the reality star and supermom as she visits the homes and workplaces of her subjects, where she will exchange insights for living.
The 12-episode season will premiere in late summer, the TLC network said Thursday.
The single mother of young twins and sextuplets, Gosselin also will revisit her family life for a series of “Kate Plus 8” specials beginning in June.
The Persian shore?
The production company behind “The Jersey Shore” has announced a casting call for a Persian-American version of the hit MTV reality show, which follows young Italian-Americans partying at the beach.
Production of the second season of “The Jersey Shore” has begun in Miami, but the cast will soon return to New Jersey to finish filming.
May the Force be witty
“Star Wars” is coming to television as an animated comedy series, though the sitcom is still in development and doesn’t have a title yet.
Lucasfilm says it will explore the comic aspects of that “galaxy far, far away” as it playfully and irreverently confronts the saga’s characters and mythology.
Part of the creative team is Seth Green, who helped hatch the popular “Robot Chicken.”
No network or start date was announced.